Kelly suffered a massive brain hemorrhage shortly after she went to sleep for the evening on Thursday, November 10, 2005. She showed no obvious symptoms prior to this, but the doctors later determined that she was born with an arteriovenous malformation. She was flown from the emergency room of Norman Regional Hospital to Childrens Hospital in Dallas and was successfully operated on to remove a massive blood clot. The swelling of her brain increased, however, and by 5am the morning of Saturday, November 12 she was brain-dead and her spirit had left her body. She lingered on life support until the early morning hours of November 16, 2005, when she officially died.