After about three weeks in a medically induced coma, in which doctors essentially stabilize the brain so that it doesn’t require as much oxygen, Bobbi Kristina Brown’s body will start to suffer.
A lack of movement for weeks can cause blood infections like sepsis or bacteremia in Brown, who was found face-down in her bathtub Jan. 31, according to Lenox Hill Hospital neurosurgery professor Dr. John Boockvar.
Brown’s immobile state could also lead to pneumonia, blood clots in the limbs and also bladder infections, since she isn’t urinating on her own.
“When these things start happening, the body starts going into multi-organ system failure, and that’s a real problem,” Boockvar said.
The prognosis remains grim.
“By this time, we should be seeing improvement,” he told the Daily News. “There should be some glimmer of hope and we haven’t gotten it.”
The missing piece of the puzzle just how long the only child of Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown was underwater, Boockvar said.
It couldn’t have been too long, because she was found alive, but “after five minutes, the brain can’t go without oxygen before neurons — the thinking cells in the brain — (are affected),” he said.
But all hope is not lost. Boockvar said that Brown’s youth is a great advantage to her. It could be the difference in why she survives this hypoxic event — when the brain is deprived of oxygen — and someone like Joan Rivers doesn’t.
“Kids are surprising and she’s still a kid,” Boockvar said. “(We) hope that her brain is more resilient because of her age, and hopefully things move in the right direction.”
