Bobbi Kristina’s organs are shutting down; Bobby Brown won’t give up

by Tanya Miller

The on-going health saga of Bobbi Kristina Brown has been very sad for the public to watch, as well as her friends and family.   She’s been on life support since being found in her apartment face down in the bath tub, and it doesn’t appear that she’s going to get better.

According to various media outlets, including the New York Daily News, Radar Online and TMZ, Bobbi Kristina’s organs are starting to shut down.  This means that even the life support systems won’t be able to keep her alive, and it may become more and more costly to keep her alive with little to no hope of a recovery.

To date, Bobby Brown, the father of Bobbi Kristina, is asking that she be kept alive on breathing machines despite doctors claiming that there isn’t much else that they can do.  Bobbi Kristina is the only child that Bobby had with his deceased ex-wife, Whitney Houston, and he has been praying for a miracle.

Other relatives of Bobbi Kristina feel that Bobby’s efforts to keep his daughter on life support are futile, but are respecting his wishes.   It may be time to say goodbye, given that the extent of Bobbi Kristina’s neurological injuries are believed to have caused her to be brain dead.

Issac Tawil, MD, an assistant professor at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, and bioethicist Arthur Caplan, PhD, director of the Division of Medical Ethics at NYU Langone Medical Center, explain what it means to be brain dead in this interview with Web MD:

Q. Is “brain-dead” the same as dead?

A. Yes. Many people think death happens when the heart stops beating and the lungs stop breathing, but machines can support those functions when the brain no longer can, Tawil says.

Q. Do doctors use specific criteria to confirm death in every case?

A. “Most people die not on machines,” so it’s not necessary to evaluate them for brain death, Caplan says.

“Typically, brain death starts with some sort of devastating neurologic injury,” Tawil says. “That can come in many different forms.” They include traumatic brain injury, a stroke caused by a ruptured blood vessel in the brain, or if the heart has stopped and the brain goes without oxygen and other nutrients it needs to survive for a long period of time.

READ MORE OF THE INTERVIEW HERE