A shocking death in Hollywood: days after doctors at two ERs said her coldlike symptoms weren't serious, Meet the Parents actress Nicole DeHuff died. Here, Cosmo looks at the last days of her life.(REAL-LIFE READS)(Biography)

* The 2000 comedy Meet the Parents, starting Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro, has many funny scenes. But one is especially memorable: when Stiller's character, bumbling Gaylord Focker, breaks his girlfriend's sister's nose during a water volleyball game the day before her wedding. The actress who played the bride-to-be was Nicole DeHuff, and the role was her film debut, landing the gig so early in her career helped Nicole snag parts on TV dramas like Monk and CSI, plus auditions for larger film roles.

Then, just as she'd achieved her lifelong goal of being an actress, everything changed. One night last February, Nicole began experiencing shortness of breath so severe, it compelled her to go to the ER. Doctors at the L.A. hospital, and the one she visited the next morning, sent her home after examining her. The following day, her condition worse, Nicole went to a third hospital, where she died the next morning. She was 30.

Below, Nicole's husband, family, and friends recount the events of those last few days, and ER physicians weigh in, in an effort to understand how a healthy young woman could die so suddenly.

Small Town, Big Dream

Nicole DeHuff was born in tiny Antlers, Oklahoma. Growing up, she dreamed of becoming an actress. "From the time she was 2, she was always acting--first in skits at home with her older sister, then in school plays," recalls Patsie DeHuff, Nicole's mom. Her father, a doctor, also encouraged her goal.

After high school, she headed to the prestigious Carnegie Mellon University, in Pittsburgh, the city where she met her future husband, Ari Palitz, in 1995. "She was working the register at a store that sold incense, and when I saw her, I froze--she was so beautiful," says Ari. "I asked her out, and by our second date, I was in love and ...