Bobbi Kristina Brown autopsy sheds little light on bathtub mystery

An initial autopsy on Bobbi Kristina Brown on Monday found no significant injuries and no obvious underlying cause of death for the daughter of the late singer Whitney Houston, who died on Sunday after sustaining irreversible brain damage in January.

The Fulton County Medical Examiner's office in Georgia said Brown, 22, had no previously unknown medical conditions that would have contributed to her death.

It also said it has issued subpoenas to help gather documentary information on her death, and would conduct additional tests that are expected to take several weeks.

Brown, the only child of Houston and R&B singer Bobby Brown, died at an Atlanta-area hospice where her family had placed her a month ago after giving up hope she would recover. She died six months after an unexplained incident that left her unresponsive in a bathtub in her suburban Atlanta home.

"Krissy was and is an angel. I am completely numb at this time," Bobby Brown, in his first comments on his daughter's death, said in a statement issued by his lawyer.

"My family must find a way to live with her in spirit and honor her memory. Our loss is unimaginable. We thank everyone for the prayers for Krissy and our family as we mourn my baby girl," he added.

The Medical Examiner's office had said earlier that efforts to determine what happened to Brown in January would be "challenging" given the time gap between the bathtub incident and her death. She was found face down in the bathtub by her boyfriend, Nick Gordon, and a friend on Jan. 31.

A $10 million civil lawsuit filed last month by the court-appointed conservator for Brown accused Gordon of causing her "life-threatening injuries" and of stealing from her bank account while she was in a coma.

No one has been criminally charged in the case, which has been referred to the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office for further review.

Brown's death came three years after her Grammy-winning mother, who had battled substance abuse, drowned in a bathtub in a Beverly Hills hotel at age 48.

Entertainment news website Entertainment Tonight, citing an unnamed family source, reported on Monday that a funeral for Brown was expected in Atlanta this week. It said her body would then be taken to New Jersey to be buried alongside her mother in Westfield. Representatives of the family have released no details on funeral arrangements.

(The story has been refiled to fix spelling in headline, Bobbi instead of Bobby and add statement from father Bobby Brown in paragraphs five and six)

(Editing by Jill Serjeant, Susan Heavey and Will Dunham)

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Bobbi Kristina Brown in hospice, placed in 'God's hands'

Bobbi Kristina Brown, the only child of late singer Whitney Houston, has been moved to hospice care and placed "in God's hands," five months after being found unresponsive in a bathtub, her family said on Wednesday.

Bobbi Kristina, 22, was hospitalized on Jan. 31 after being found face down in a bathtub in her suburban Atlanta home.

Few details about her condition have been released officially but her grandmother, Cissy Houston, said in April that doctors had diagnosed "global and irreversible brain damage."

In a statement issued on Wednesday on behalf of the Houston family, Bobbi Kristina's aunt, Pat Houston, said that "despite the great medical care at numerous facilities, Bobbi Kristina Brown’s condition has continued to deteriorate. As of today, she has been moved into hospice care.

"We thank everyone for their support and prayers. She is in God's hands now."

Bobbi Kristina is the daughter of Whitney Houston and her former husband, R&B singer Bobby Brown. They divorced after a tempestuous, drug-fueled marriage that began when she was 14.

The circumstances of her accident have not been explained but it was eerily similar to the death of her Grammy award- winning mother, who drowned in a Beverly Hills hotel bathtub in February 2012 at the age of 48. In that case, authorities said years of cocaine abuse and heart disease played a key role.

Bobbi Kristina, who inherited her mother's fortune, was found by her partner Nick Gordon and a friend. In the hospital, she was put in a medically induced coma to stop brain swelling. She was later taken off a ventilator, given a tracheotomy and moved to a rehabilitation center but she remained largely unresponsive, members of her family have said.

Before the accident, she was an aspiring singer who began performing with her famous mother as early as 1999, singing duets of "My Love is Your Love." In 2003, she recorded a duet of "Little Drummer Boy" for a holiday album.

She was hospitalized twice with anxiety after her mother's death and in 2012 she appeared on Lifetime's reality TV show, "The Houstons: On Our Own," which chronicled the family's struggle to recover.

(Reporting by Suzannah Gonzales; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Eric Walsh)

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NFL players union funds $100M Harvard study on injury

BOSTON - The union that represents U.S. professional football players has given Harvard University a $100 million grant for a study of the range of health problems, from brain damage to heart conditions, that affect current and former players.

Researchers with Harvard Medical School plan to spend a decade studying hundreds of former players who are members of the National Football League Players Association, university officials said on Tuesday. The aim is to develop strategies to limit the long-term damage that players suffer from years of hits on the field.

The recent suicides of a spate of former NFL players, including 12-time Pro Bowl linebacker Junior Seau, have raised concerns about the toll that blows to the head take on the brains of current and former players.

Scientists have found that years of steady, small hits can lead to a condition called chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which at its start can cause victims to have a hard time concentrating on small tasks and eventually can lead to aggression and dementia.

The worries are not limited to the pros, who are part of a $9 billion U.S. industry. Parents of players, from peewee leagues to college, have raised concerns about the game and leagues have changed rules to limit hits to the head.

Those concerns reach all the way to the White House.

"I'm a big football fan, but I have to tell you if I had a son, I'd have to think long and hard before I let him play football," President Barack Obama said in an interview with the New Republic magazine published on Sunday, a week before the Super Bowl championship will be played in New Orleans.

Harvard Medical School Dean Jeffrey Flier said the research would aim to address health concerns at all levels of play.

"Millions of kids and college athletes play football, formally and informally," Flier said in a statement on the school's website. "We cannot afford to ignore the health risks associated with this sport."

Harvard researchers plan to identify a group of at least 1,000 retired NFL players from around the country and focus their study on 100 healthy and 100 unhealthy former players.

The NFL lauded the move.

"We look forward to learning more about the Harvard study and hope that it will play an important role in advancing medical science," league spokesman Brian McCarthy said.

The league faces lawsuits from more than 2,000 former players who say NFL management concealed information about the risk of chronic brain injury to players. It has begun to change the rules of the game to lower the risks, including sharply penalizing the most dangerous helmet-on-helmet hits.

Seau's family sued the NFL this month, saying brain damage he suffered during his 20 years in the league led to his suicide. A study by independent researchers found that Seau, 43, suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy - the same debilitating brain disease diagnosed in at least two other former NFL players who committed suicide.

The NFL has said the findings about Seau's brain underscored "the recognized need for additional research to accelerate a fuller understanding of CTE." League teams have donated $30 million to the National Institutes of Health for research.

(Editing by Cynthia Johnston; Editing by Dan Grebler)

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