Bobbi Kristina Brown remains hospitalized following a Jan. 31 medical emergency as rumors swirl about her condition and tensions emerge among some of her family members.
Citing sources close to the family, USA Today, CNN and People on Thursday reported that doctors had removed her breathing tube. She “will now be ventilated through a hole in her throat,” CNN reported.
“This is an indication that the patient will need this for weeks and months to come, as opposed to hours and days,” CNN’s chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, noted in the report. The move “lowers the risk of infection and is standard procedure,” he added.
Brown was discovered face-down and unresponsive in a bathtub. No official information about her condition has been released, and both sides of her family have issued statements requesting privacy.
“Our family continues to stand together praying that Bobbi Kristina continues to fight for her life,” her aunt Pat Houston said in a statement. “We thank you again for your continued prayers of love and restoration and we thank you for respecting the family’s privacy at this time.”
Bobbi Kristina Brown, 21, is the only child of the late Whitney Houston and singer Bobby Brown. As her medical plight continues, tension among some of her family members appears to be rising.
A statement issued by an attorney representing her father “requested that the media cease speaking with unauthorized members of the family. The integrity of the events that led to the hospitalization of Bobbi Kristina must remain uncompromised.”
The statement specifically mentioned a cousin, Jerod Brown, who has kept his social media platforms full of pictures of his cousin and pleas for prayers. The family apparently disapproved of his plan to hold a “meet and greet” with fans.
“Please do not attend any ‘meet and greet’ organized by Jerod Brown as he is unable to provide access to Bobbi Kristina or information on her condition,” the statement said. “This is a criminal investigation and we do not need this side show.”
Jerod Brown has maintained an active social media presence, and posted a message criticizing the decision to film a reality show featuring Bobbi Kristina and her family following Whitney Houston’s death in February 2012.
“Where was y’all when them (expletive) Houstons put cameras all in her face three months after her mother was in the ground,” he wrote. He capped his tweet, which disparaged the pleas for privacy, with the hashtag #MilkinHer.
Meanwhile, attorneys for Bobbi Kristina Brown’s companion Nick Gordon issued a statement indicating he doesn’t feel welcome at the hospital.
“Nick has been trying, privately, to do everything he can to see Bobbi Kristina cooperatively,” it read. “He has respected the family’s wishes and for that reason alone has not returned to the hospital and risked a public confrontation. But he desperately wants to be with the one he loves and continues to hope that his request will be granted.”
