Local doctor weighs in on Bobbi Kristina Brown's condition

Whitney Houston's daughter in medically induced coma

After Houston's death, Bobbi Kristina talked of pursuing a career in acting and music, just like her mother.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A local pulmonologist from Baptist Medical Center weighed in on Bobbi Kristina Brown's condition, days after she was found unresponsive in a bathtub in Atlanta.

The daughter of singers Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown remained in a medically induced coma Wednesday.  She was moved to Atlanta's Emory University Hospital on Tuesday.

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Dr. William Gill, a pulmonologist at Baptist Medical Center in Jacksonville, said for someone to go unconscious in a tub, the brain would have to be suppressed, which would come from a seizure event or some sort of trauma.

"Typically when we fall asleep we wake ourselves up when you can't breathe. For people with sleep apnea, they will describe snorting awake or gasping awake so getting water into the lungs or getting into the system produces a pretty violent reaction within the system," said Dr. Gill.

A source close to the family told CNN that Brown's eyes opened and closed a few times Monday, but that doctors told family members not to read too much into that movement.

"Fluttering of the eyes would make me worry that she's having seizures and they weren't able to pick them up in any of her other muscle groups and so typically we're using an EEG during that time to make sure we're not missing anything that could be injuring the brain with what's going on," said Dr. Gill.

Doctors were trying to reduce the sedatives to check Brown's brain function, but decided to keep her in the coma for now, the source said.

Dr. Gill said it typically takes a day or two to bring someone out of a medically induced coma unless they're having seizures.

"They need to wait for the drug levels to get high enough to control the seizures that are going on, but it's a drastic injury for sure that would require them to do that especially for a prolonged period of time," said Dr. Gill.

Gill also noted it's difficult to say how long Brown would remain in a medically induced coma.

"You can keep people on a ventilator and give them food, medication to sedate them and reduce brain activity for weeks, but if the brain is gone, injured, people don't survive that more than 30 days," Dr. Gill said.

Nobody knows what caused Brown's unresponsiveness, but police consider it a medical incident at this time, according to police spokesperson Lisa Holland.  She said investigators had found nothing to indicate it was drug- or alcohol-related. The incident report referenced a drowning.

Almost three years ago, Whitney Houston was found dead in a bathtub at the Beverly Hilton hotel near Los Angeles, hours before she was to attend a pre-Grammy Awards party. A coroner ruled her February 11, 2012, death an accidental drowning, with heart disease and cocaine use listed as contributing factors.