Above Photo: Andrew Burton/Getty Images
Updated Thursday, Dec. 28, 2017, 4:55 p.m. EST: Erica Garner is still fighting for her life after suffering brain damage, following a heart attack over the holiday weekend.
The activist remains in grave condition on life support, and the family is holding on and clinging to “a glimpse of hope,” the New York Daily News reports.
“We got the wrong information; she’s not gone,” Erica’s mother, Esaw Snipes-Garner, told the Daily News. “She’s still here with us. She just needs some time to heal, that’s it.
“We just ask that y’all give her time to heal,” Snipes-Garner added. “Keep praying for her.”
Updated Thursday, Dec. 28, 2017, 4:05 p.m. EST: Erica Garner’s official Twitter account is disputing the characterization of Garner’s condition.
I know that the @NYDailyNews didn’t get their information from anyone that heard it straight from a doctors mouth because only one person was in the room when the results were read. That person was me. I called each family member. So they are reporting 3 person hearsay.
— officialERICA GARNER (@es_snipes) December 28, 2017
Garner remains in critical condition on life support, fighting for her life, according to varying accounts. Activist Shaun King, who reportedly visited Woodhull Hospital in Brooklyn, N.Y., to see the family, has said that the family was “encouraged.”
I just visited the hospital to see Erica Garner and family.
She has not passed away.
She does have limited brain function but doctors say they see some activity. Her condition is no doubt critical, but the family was encouraged this afternoon.
Do not write her obituary.
— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) December 28, 2017
Give this family the space and time for a miracle. That is what is needed at this point, but it is still possible.
No family wants or needs somebody declaring their loved one is dead when they are alive.
Thanks. https://t.co/lDeH8KfDLz
— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) December 28, 2017
Updated Thursday, Dec. 28, 2017, 10:34 a.m. EST: Erica Garner has been declared brain-dead with no chance of recovery five days after suffering a massive heart attack that left her in a coma, according to a report.
According to the New York Daily News, family members were being called in on Thursday to Woodhull Hospital in Brooklyn, N.Y., in order to say their final goodbyes to the beloved mother of two, who became a voice against police brutality after her the death of her father, Eric Garner, in 2014.
Erica Garner currently remains on life support, her mother, Esaw Snipes-Garner, confirmed.
“She’s not gone; she’s brain-dead,” Garner’s mother said. “Physically, she is still with us.”
Garner has remained in a coma since Saturday, when an asthma attack apparently triggered a heart attack.
Our thoughts go out to the entire family at this incredibly difficult time.
Updated Wednesday, Dec. 27, 2017, 9 p.m. EST: Erica Garner is still in critical condition after suffering a heart attack on Christmas Eve.
According to an update posted Dec. 27 on Garner’s official Twitter page, she also suffered major brain damage because of a lack of oxygen.
Update: Cat scan shows Erica suffered major brain damage from a lack of oxygen while in cardiac arrest. Please continue to pray hard for Erica and pray for her family and kids just as much.
— officialERICA GARNER (@es_snipes) December 28, 2017
Please continue to keep Erica, her children and the Snipes-Garner family in your thoughts.
We love you, Erica.
Earlier:
Erica Garner, 27, daughter of Eric Garner—the 43-year-old Staten Island, N.Y., man who was killed in 2014 when New York City Police Officer Daniel Pantaleo restrained him with an illegal choke hold—is in a coma after suffering a heart attack on Christmas Eve.
Emerald Snipes shared her sister’s condition on Facebook: 
Erica, a mother of two, is reportedly unable to breathe on her own, the New York Daily News reports.
Esaw Snipes-Garner, Erica’s mother and Eric Garner’s widow, said that her daughter’s heart attack was brought on by a severe asthma attack. This is the second heart attack the 27-year-old activist has suffered; the first one occurred after she gave birth in August to her son, Eric, named after her father.
It was then that doctors discovered that Erica had an enlarged heart.
“[She] is still with us,” Snipes-Garner told the News. “She’s fighting. The doctor says she has a strong heart.”
Someone who identified themselves as one of Erica’s workers tweeted from her official Twitter account and asked followers for prayers.
This is one of Ericas workers. Pray for her.
— officialERICA GARNER (@es_snipes) December 25, 2017
she is in a coma
— officialERICA GARNER (@es_snipes) December 25, 2017
Ill tweet updates as I have them. please pray for Erica right now.
— officialERICA GARNER (@es_snipes) December 25, 2017
Erica Garner became a fierce oppositional force against state-sanctioned violence after Pantaleo killed her 43-year-old father on July 17, 2014, by placing him in an illegal choke hold.
A few months after her father’s lynching at the hands of the NYPD, Erica Garner staged a “die-in” on the same Staten Island corner where Eric Garner took his last breath.
“I can’t breathe,” Eric Garner’s last words, became a rallying cry for a movement that would intensify even more just three weeks later in the wake of Michael Brown’s extrajudicial killing in Ferguson, Mo.
When New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, citing an archaic law, refused to release Pantaleo’s disciplinary record, Erica Garner blasted him on social media, making it clear that having a black wife and black children does not mean that de Blasio has genuine love for the black citizens he claims to serve.
In December 2014, a grand jury declined to indict Pantaleo, who had a history of violently targeting black men.
Kenneth Smith and Rylawn Walker both filed lawsuits against Pantaleo in federal court claiming that not only did Pantaleo lie about the men being in possession of marijuana—charges that were later dropped—but he also subjected each man “to a degrading search of his private parts and genitals,” according to the lawsuits.
Since Erica Garner first stepped on the front line seeking justice for her father, she has also been vocal on the war on drugs and has heavily criticized the Democratic Party for its apathetic so-called pragmatism in the face of rampant police brutality and systemic oppression in occupied communities.
She is a warrior making her father, her family and her community proud.
Our thoughts are with Erica and the entire Snipes-Garner family as we await news about her condition.