Hospitalized Hatboro Officer Suffered 'Severe' Brain Injury After Bee Sting

HATBORO, PA — The Hatboro police officer who remains hospitalized due to cardiac arrest brought on by a bee sting underwent imaging testing on Wednesday that revealed he had suffered a "severe brain injury," although his family remains hopeful that he'll recover in time.

Officer Ryan Allen, the 35-year-old K9 handler who is a beloved member of the Hatboro community, remains under heavy sedation at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center in Philadelphia, where doctors performed an MRI this week to assess any brain damage that may have occurred as a result of his cardiac arrest, Allen's wife, Whitney Allen, posted in a Facebook status update on Thursday.

Whitney Allen, who remains by her husband's side and continues to care for the couple's young child, while being pregnant with their second, stated in the social media post that doctors continue to hold out hope that Ryan Allen can come out of this OK despite the brain injury that was discovered from the MRI, since others who have sustained brain injuries similar to his "have gone on to have positive outcomes and I am overcome with a sense of relief and hope he will continue to overcome the odds and we are giving him all the time he needs to heal," Whitney Allen posted.

"... As we have been told from the beginning of his journey, images don't necessarily dictate clinical outcomes and after a long discussion with Ryan's medical team today we have decided to give him every benefit of the doubt that he is able to repair, rehabilitate and overcome his brain injury," Whitney Allen posted.

Whitney Allen said her husband's body is otherwise doing "very well despite his brain injury." She said his heart, kidney and liver all remain healthy, the pneumonia he had developed from being on a ventilator is slowly resolving, and both his ventilator settings and dosing of sedative medications are beginning to decrease.

Doctors said the process to wean Ryan Allen off of the sedatives is a slow one so as to not cause any shock to his system as he begins to awaken, Whitney Allen related. She also said her husband continues to battle with "storming" episodes, which are what doctors described as shaking or shivering episodes caused by the brain injury. But those are becoming less and less frequent, she said.

"We continue to remain positive for Ryan's recovery, although it may be slow and know that once he wakes up he will work his a** off and use [his] stubbornness to his advantage to recover with the ultimate goal to return home to our family," Whitney Allen posted. "We also continue to be grateful for all the support our family has received since Ryan's injury and although I haven't been able to thank everyone who has been so generous, we are speechless at all the love we have been shown during this time."

Ryan Allen told his wife he had been stung by what he believed to be a yellow jacket back on Oct. 14 while driving home from the gym on his day off from work.

He had gone upstairs once arriving back at his Doylestown home to tell his wife that he had been stung when he collapsed in just a matter of a few moments, his wife previously told Patch. The sting caused anaphylactic shock that ultimately caused Ryan Allen to suffer cardiac arrest.

Ryan Allen is a loved member of the Hatboro Police Department who was integral in starting up the K9 unit there, Hatboro Police Chief James Gardner previously told Patch.

Ryan Allen's K9 partner, Louie, lives at home with the couple in Bucks County.