My parents put everything in a trust fund for me. I won't get it until I'm 18, so I'll use it for college.

In addition to her roles in the Poltergeist film series O'Rourke also had a recurring role on Happy Days from 1982 to 1983 and made several television guest appearances. In April 1983 Heather O'Rourke starred as herself alongside Morey Amsterdam and well-known Walt Disney animated characters in the hour-long television special Believe You Can. O'Rourke had been seen by doctors at Kaiser since birth and the suit claimed that they failed to properly diagnose her long-standing small-bowel obstruction: had they not simply treated her for Crohn's disease with prescription drugs Heather O'Rourke could have been cured by means of a simple operation; and this misdiagnosis caused O'Rourke's death.

She would go on to reprise the role of Carol Anne in the second and third installments. O'Rourke died at the age of 12 of cardiac arrest and septic shock caused by a misdiagnosed intestinal stenosis in February 1988.