"8. Plaintiff, Bryan Elwood Thompson III, shall insure that there is no smoking in the house where the child resides or in the house where the child is regularly placed. Because of the child's asthmatic condition the parties are directed not to smoke in the presence of the child or to allow smoking in the child's presence."
At that time Bryan III and Bryan IV resided with Bryan III's grandparents. At a later time Bryan III and Tasha moved in together, and left Bryan IV living with his grandparents, except on the weekends, when Bryan and Tasha would go and get him to spend the weekend with them. Approximately 2 months before Bryan IV's death, Bryan III did not take him back to his grandparents' home at the end of the weekend as he usually did, but kept him in his and Tasha's home to begin to live with them. The grandparents were not happy about this change in living arrangements, so they would not let Bryan III have Bryan IV's things, which included clothes, toys, and his breathing machine. It is believed that this is the point in time that the child's problems, that led to his death, began. Before Bryan IV's death, his hair had begun falling out, he had blood pooling in the whites of his eyes, and 'neurological activity', i.e., eyes rolling in the back of his head and 'just spacing out' for 5-10 minutes at a time. All of these 'episodes' seem to become more frequent toward the end of his life. All of this was testified to on the stand, by people testifying against Tasha (Bryan III and Tasha's biological grandmother). This 'neurological activity' could have also been an indication of lack of oxygen to the brain, caused by the untreated asthma. This avenue of defense was never explored by the defense team.