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Travolta Family Flies to Florida with Teen’s Ashes
6-Jan-2009
Written by: Janelle Gary
Travoltas fly to Florida with teen’s ashes.
The body of John Travolta and Kelly Preston’s son, 16-year-old Jett Travolta, was cremated in the Bahamas after his sudden death while on a family vacation, and his family has flown to Florida with his ashes, a Bahamian lawmaker said on Tuesday, according to Reuters UK and AP news articles. The family left Grand Bahama island Monday evening and has returned to Ocala, Florida, where they have a home.
The teenager, who had a history of seizures, suffered a seizure Friday, Jan. 2, at the Travolta’s holiday home in the Old Bahama Bay resort on Grand Bahama island. His father, along with paramedics, tried to revive him, but he was unresponsive and pronounced dead after being rushed by ambulance to Rand Memorial Hospital in Freeport, according to AP news.
The body was in “great condition,” said Assistant Director Glen Campbell of the Bahamas funeral home that handled Jett's remains, though police officials had said the teen hit his head on a bathtub.
Funeral plans have not been announced.
In Ocala, Mayor Randy Ewers said the city sent condolences to the Travolta family and will give them space and privacy.
“They're fantastic people, really family oriented,” Ewers said in an AP news article. “We want to respect their privacy as much as possible.”
In a public statement, Sunday, Travolta, 54, and Preston, 46, said they were “heartbroken that our time with him was so brief.”
Usmagazine.com cited Travolta’s lawyers, Michael Ossi and Michael McDermott, as saying that the teen may have died in his father’s arms. Ossi and McDermott did not return calls from the AP on Monday.
An autopsy was done Monday, but its results weren’t released to the public, as there was “nothing criminal” about the death, according to Bahamian Police Commissioner Reginald Ferguson. According to both Reuters UK and AP news, a Bahamian undertaker at Restview Memorial funeral home did say that the teen’s death certificate listed “seizure disorder” as the cause of death.
An AP news article said that Ossi and McDermott told a celebrity Web site that the teen had been suffering from grand mal seizures, which can cause loss of consciousness. The teen was also on Depakote, an anti-seizure medication, for several years before discontinuing it because it had lost its effectiveness and there was concern about its side effects.
Travolta and Preston have said that, after becoming very sick, Jett was diagnosed at age 2 with Kawasaki disease, which can cause inflamed blood vessels in young children. Preston blamed household cleaners and fertilizers, and said a detoxification program based on teachings from the Church of Scientology helped improve his health, according to People magazine.
Police said in a statement that Jett had not been seen since Thursday when a caretaker, Jeff Kathrain, found him unconscious late Friday morning. But McDermott said that statement wrongly left the impression that Jett was unsupervised. He said two caretakers were with Jett throughout Thursday evening, and he does not believe the teen was in the bathroom for very long.
The couple also has an 8-year-old daughter, Ella Bleu.
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