Royal Oak commissioner Kim Gibbs died of natural causes, medical examiner says

Mike Martindale
The Detroit News

Pontiac — A Royal Oak City councilwoman who collapsed in her home died a few days later from natural causes, Oakland County Medical Examiner Ljubisa Dragovic said Monday.

Kim Gibbs was found inside her Royal Oak home Aug. 5 by her mother, who became concerned when she didn’t respond to telephone calls or texts. Gibbs never regained consciousness and a decision was made at the hospital a few days later to take her off of life support machines.

Royal Oak commissioner Kim Gibbs

Dragovic said an autopsy showed Gibbs — who had Type 1 diabetes and took insulin — had hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy and was taken off life support after doctors determined she was never going to come out of her coma.

“The brain tissue was examined because of concern she might have had other injuries from a recent auto accident,” Dragovic said. “There were none."

She did not have any other injuries and the conclusion is diabetes and sky-high blood sugar levels likely led to her collapse at home.”

Dragovic said Gibbs had tested positive for COVID-19 at the hospital and while she might have been a carrier, she did not have any of the symptoms and it was not associated with her death.

Weeks before she became ill, Gibbs was criticized after she was spotted at an anti-lockdown Lansing rally. She was subsequently tested and was not determined to have the virus, friends said.

According to her friends, Gibbs was so traumatized by a series of personal attacks from acquaintances and strangers that she filed a police report and voice recording which had advised her to not leave her home. Following the April rally Gibbs self-quarantined and, at the time, tested negative for the COVID-19 virus, friends said.