AP-An autopsy is planned for John Travolta’s teenage son, who died after apparently hitting his head on the bathtub while the family was vacationing at their home in the Bahamas, authorities said.
Travolta’s teenage son has died after injuring himself at the actor’s vacation home. Police spokeswoman Loretta Mackey says 16-year-old Jett Travolta hit his head in a bathtub Friday Jan. 2, 2009. She said he was declared dead at Rand Memorial Hospital on Grand Bahama Island.
Jett Travolta, 16, had last been seen entering the bathroom on Thursday and had a history of seizures, Police Superintendent Basil Rahming said in a statement.
A house caretaker found the teenager unconscious in a bathroom late Friday morning. He was taken by ambulance to a Freeport hospital, where he was pronounced dead, the statement said.
Jett apparently hit his head on the bathtub, said a police officer who declined to be named because she was not authorized to speak on the matter.
Family attorney Michael Ossi said in a statement that Jett died suddenly on Friday. Publicists Samantha Mast and Paul Bloch released the statement but could not be reached for additional comment.
Obie Wilchcombe, a parliament member and former tourism minister in the Bahamas, said that an autopsy is planned for Monday, and “we expect a quick resolution.”
“John spoke with the minister of health and the doctors and police are at the hospital. They’re very, very quick to resolve things,” he said.
Wilchcombe said Travolta “spent a tremendous amount of time with Jett.”
“He always brought him along. There was a close affectionate relationship and lots of love,” Wilchcombe told “Larry King Live” in a live telephone interview. “People in the old Bahama community today are in shock.”
Travolta, 54, and his wife, actress Kelly Preston, 46, also have an 8-year-old daughter, Ella Bleu. The family had arrived in the Bahamas on a private plane Tuesday and was vacationing at their home in the Old Bahama Bay resort community.
Preston and Travolta have said that Jett became very sick when he was 2 years old and was diagnosed with Kawasaki disease, an illness that leads to inflammation of the blood vessels in young children. She blamed household cleaners and fertilizers, and said that a detoxification program based on teachings from the Church of Scientology helped improve his health, according to People magazine. Both Travolta and Preston are practicing Scientologists.
NY Daily News- Kawasaki Disease almost killed Jett Travolta when he was a toddler, but experts said it was unlikely the rare childhood disorder led to his reported seizure Friday.
“Seizures are not part of Kawasaki disease,” said Dr. Stanford Shulman, a specialist in the disease at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.
“If a teenager had a seizure and died, that would not commonly be due to Kawasaki disease.”
The sickness, more common in young boys, leads to fever, rash, red eyes and swollen hands and feet.
Its cause is controversial. Some, like Jett’s actress mom, Kelly Preston, believe environmental toxins trigger the symptoms. Others blame a virus.
If left untreated, Kawasaki can cause blood clots and heart attacks, even later in life.
About 4,000 cases of Kawasaki disease are diagnosed each year in the U.S., virtually all in young children, Shulman said.
“Nowadays, no more than 2% or 3% of cases develop significant coronary artery abnormalities, so deaths are rare, but they do occur,” he said.
Some research has pointed to seizures in kids suffering from acute Kawasaki disease.
A deathly ill Jett was rushed to the hospital when he was 2 and diagnosed with the disease, his parents have said. His mother said he recovered with the help of a detoxification program but still had “allergies.”
Police in the Bahamas Friday said they were told Jett had a history of seizures.