Travolta's son cremated, ashes flown to Florida
NASSAU (Reuters) - The body of actor John Travolta's 16-year-old son, Jett, was cremated in the Bahamas after his sudden death during the New Year's holiday and his parents flew to Florida with his ashes, a Bahamian lawmaker said on Tuesday.
The boy suffered a seizure at his family's holiday home in the Old Bahama Bay resort on Grand Bahama island last Friday. His death certificate listed the cause of death as "seizure disorder," said an official at the Restview Memorial funeral home, where the body was cremated.
John Travolta and his actress wife, Kelly Preston, flew out of the Bahamas on Monday night with the ashes, which were turned over to a funeral home in Ocala, Florida, said Obie Wilchcombe, a member of parliament for western Grand Bahama.
The couple has a home near Ocala in exclusive Jumbolair, an aviation community with a private 7,500-foot (2,290-meter) runway and taxiways right up to the homes.
Pathologists performed an autopsy on Monday. Bahamian Police Commissioner Reginald Ferguson said the results would not be released because there was "nothing criminal" about the boy's death.
Jett Travolta was found unconscious in a bathroom at his family's home on Friday morning. His father and paramedics tried to revive him but he was pronounced dead after being rushed in an ambulance to Rand Memorial Hospital in Freeport.
The teenager had had a history of seizures. John Travolta's lawyers, Michael Ossi and Michael McDermott, told a celebrity website that the boy had apparently been suffering from grand mal seizures, which can cause loss of consciousness.
He was on an anti-seizure medication called Depakote for several years but stopped taking it when it lost its effectiveness amid concern about side effects, they said.
Travolta and his wife, who also have an 8-year-old daughter, Ella, have said Jett was sick when he was a toddler and was diagnosed with Kawasaki disease, which leads to inflammation of the blood vessels in young children.
(Editing by Jim Loney, Editing by Sandra Maler)
