Bobbi Kristina Brown: Seizures Indicate She Is Not Brain Dead

It’s now been four weeks since the horrifying find of Bobbi Kristina Brown, 21, not breathing and unconscious in a bathtub in her Georgia townhouse. Bobbi Kristina is the only child of singer Bobby Brown and the late singer, Whitney Houston, who was found dead in a bathtub three years ago. These are facts that are known for sure.

After that point, things get confusing and somewhat sketchy. Bobbi Kristina lived in the townhome with Nick Gordon, who she called “my husband,” although her father’s lawyers state they are not married, which makes father Bobby Brown her next-of-kin, and therefore able to make her legal and medical decisions in her incapacitated state. “Sources” have been the main supplier of information on Bobbi Kristina’s condition. These could be friends or family who wish to remain anonymous, or even healthcare workers with firsthand knowledge, although that would be highly unethical.

To recap what “sources” have told the public to this point: Bobbi Kristina is a medically induced coma. This means that she’s being given heavily sedating medication that renders her unconscious and unable to breathe on her own. For that reason, she is on a ventilator, which breathes for her. It is unknown to the public if she is able to breathe off of the ventilator. What “sources” have shared is that when doctors attempt to stop the sedation, she has violent seizures, causing them to have to place her back into a medically induced coma. From a neurological perspective, the seizures mean two things: her brain has suffered a trauma and is having seizures as a result, and seizures show that she is not brain dead. That does not necessarily mean good news, however.

Neurologist Eli Zimmerman of Massachusetts General Hospital, a physician who is not treating Bobbi Kristina, weighs in on what these symptoms suggest.

“Seizures indicate the patient is not brain-dead. There has to be some kind of brain activity. Patients are sedated – put into a medically-induced coma – because doctors want the brain to have to do as little as possible. This way, the brain can heal. If the brain has been irritated by injury, it may go into seizures once the medication is stopped. In a situation like that, we may introduce medication for seizures that are not so severe.”

However, a family member says that has been no change at all in the past two days in Bobbi Kristina’s condition, but that doctors have given them some information that has caused them to have “clarity.”

“We know a little more about what to expect now. In some ways, that’s a comfort.”