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Judge Grants Request From Jahi McMath’s Family to Extend Life Support
Life News ^ | Steven Ertelt

Posted on 12/30/2013 4:47:11 PM PST by Morgana

The judge who is adjudicating the case of the family of the teenage girl in California who is the subject of a national debate over whether a hospital has the right to yank life support has granted an extension.

A county judge extended the order for the hospital to keep Jahi McMath on life support until 5 p.m. on January 7. Her mother and family say she is alive.

Jahi’s family has a door-to-door ambulance flight contracted to take her to a New York facility that will care for her.

“The family has located a licensed facility in the state of New York which has agreed to take Jahi,” Jahi’s uncle, Omari Sealey, said Monday afternoon, only about an hour before an Alameda County judge’s order keeping the girl on a ventilator was set to expire. “We have contracted with an air ambulance willing to take her from door to door. We have a doctor here in California who will be with her throughout the transfer.”

Sealey said Jahi has been responsive to her mother’s voice.

“Jahi is moving when her mother speaks,” he said. “We have video our attorneys have just produced it to the hospital’s attorney. We have a pediatrician who has seen Jahi who has sworn that she is not dead. We are hopeful that one of these (legal) actions will forestall the hospital’s rush to extinguish Jahi’s chance at life.”

Meanwhile, just three hours before the deadline, the girl’s grandmother, Sandra Chapman spoke to the media and suggested Jahi was moving her body, saying there was leg and body movement as well as response to touch and voice.

“I know one’s [an alternative care facility] gonna come through. I know it. I feel it. Jahi’s moving. If she’s moving, the doctor should pay attention to that,” she said.

Jahi McMath’s family had found a new care facility that will continue her medical care and treatment. But the hospital she is at now won’t cooperate to move her.

A judge had ruled that a hospital in Oakland, California can remove life support from Jahi McMath, 13, who has been declared brain-dead days after undergoing surgery to have her tonsils removed. Her family is already devastated enough but has had to fight the hospital, which wanted to take her off life support against their wishes.

On Thursday, the lawyer for the family, Christopher Dolan, asked Children’s Hospital of Oakland to cooperate by performing a few procedures needed to move Jahi McMath. The hospital said no.

The Los Angeles-area long-term care facility that had been willing to accept Jahi has withdrawn its offer, leaving a New York hospital as the only apparent option for. That is happening as a deadline of 5 p.m. today reaches, whereby the hospital will officially cut offer her life support.

“I just found out that the facility my daughter was supposed to be going to has backed out! Children’s hospital has once again interfered with the placement of my daughter we still have a chance at 1 more facility so let us all pray,” family member Latasha Nailah Winkfield said.

The San Jose newspaper has more on this teenager’s case:

“I just found out that the facility my daughter was supposed to be going to has backed out,” Jahi’s mother, Nailah Winkfield, wrote on the family’s fundraising website early Sunday. “My family and I are still striving to find a location that will accept her in her current condition.”

That leaves an unnamed New York hospital “as our last, last hope,” Jahi’s lawyer, Christopher Dolan, said. The facility is run by an “organization that believes in life,” Dolan told The Associated Press.

But in a statement issued Sunday, a spokeswoman for Children’s Hospital Oakland said its doctors said no one from any other medical organization has been in contact with it to discuss a transfer of the 13-year-old.

“Our physicians have yet to receive a single call or message from the facility under consideration,” Cynthia Chiarappa wrote. “We have been waiting since Friday — when we were first told by the family lawyer of a potential facility that might accept the body of Jahi — for a call from a physician to discuss with our medical staff what may be necessary to transfer the deceased.”

Dolan said the unnamed Los Angeles-area facility withdrew its offer because it didn’t want media attention or to jeopardize its relationship with its doctors, who refused to treat someone who’s been declared brain dead.

As Jahi’s family prepared for a Sunday afternoon fundraiser at an Oakland church to help pay for a possible airlift, it remained unclear what will happen in the hours ahead.

Doctors at Children’s Hospital have refused to perform a tracheotomy for breathing and insert a gastric tube for feeding, procedures that are needed in order to transfer Jahi, saying it is unethical to perform surgery on a deceased person.

Jahi’s family is raising funds for her support. You can help by going to www.gofundme.com/jahi-mcmath

Jahi arrived at the hospital on a Monday and was supposed to be released Tuesday, the family said. A member of Jahi’s family , a veteran nurse at Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, noticed her granddaughter was bleeding from her mouth and nose. She later went into cardiac arrest. Jahi spent Tuesday on a ventilator. By 2 a.m. Wednesday, doctors said she had swelling in her brain, and Thursday, she was declared legally brain-dead, family members said.

Judge Evelio Grillo ruled that Jahi must be kept on the breathing machine until at least 5 p.m. December 30. The verdict came after hearing testimony from two doctors, one an independent expert appointed by the judge on Monday and the other a 30-year veteran of the hospital. Both testified that the teen is brain-dead and that her body is alive only because of a ventilator hooked up to her since December 12.

The family has appealed the decision but pro-life attorney Wesley Smith said it is unlikely they will prevail.

“The judge gave the family, still fighting the determination, until Monday to appeal or adjust to the tragic reality,” he said. “I hope the family spends the remaining time loving Jahi and making preparations, as there is zero chance in my view that the court’s ruling will be overturned on appeal. If a miracle is to happen, it will have to be when the breathing assistance is removed. People who are brain dead have no ability to breathe on their own.”

“It’s also a shame the hospital has handled the tragedy so maladroitly. I was speaking about this to a former pediatric nurse who used to work in Children’s Hospital Oakland’s ICU. She said the facility has a real calling to serving the African-American community, and this has hurt trust. That’s why I was upset to hear a hospital spokesman say he was “gratified” that the court validated the hospital’s diagnosis,” Smith continued. “No, the proper and decent thing would have been to say that they were sorry the original diagnosis was affirmed. Good grief.”


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Health/Medicine
KEYWORDS: abortion; california; infanticide; jahi; jahimcmath; mcmath; medicareforall; obamacare; prolife; ruling
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1 posted on 12/30/2013 4:47:11 PM PST by Morgana
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To: Morgana

Thank goodness! Let her family decide.


2 posted on 12/30/2013 4:50:03 PM PST by RushIsMyTeddyBear (Great vid by ShorelineMike! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOZjJk6nbD4&feature=plcp)
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To: Morgana

She’s dead, Jim.


3 posted on 12/30/2013 4:52:38 PM PST by Benito Cereno
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To: Benito Cereno

On the off chance that there is a snowballs chance in hell I do hope this child wakes up. Even if she’s never quite right at least she woke up.


4 posted on 12/30/2013 4:56:37 PM PST by Morgana (Always a bit of truth in dark humor.)
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To: Morgana

If she’s truly dead as the hospital claims then this family needs serious counciling. Their desire to keep her on machines could stem from their guilt of putting her under the knife instead of feeding her healthy food and exercising with her.


5 posted on 12/30/2013 4:58:28 PM PST by goodwithagun (My gun has killed fewer people than Ted Kennedy's car.)
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To: Morgana

For how long? And who is paying for this mechanical treatment?


6 posted on 12/30/2013 5:01:51 PM PST by Benito Cereno
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To: goodwithagun

Does the girl’s heart beat? What keeps that in rhythm? Would her stomach digest food if given? The hospital is handling this very poorly. I would guess the other facility has had some serious contacts from the hospital admin that they better not get involved in any way.


7 posted on 12/30/2013 5:08:07 PM PST by healy61
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To: Benito Cereno

While my intent was to use the word “medical”, I think my typo was apropos. They aren’t administering medical treatment, it’s merely mechanically keeping the bellows and pump in her chest moving. When it comes to this kind of prolonging of bodily functions, I’m with Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park, “You spend all this time figuring out if you could, you never stopped to think about whether you should.”


8 posted on 12/30/2013 5:08:41 PM PST by Benito Cereno
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To: goodwithagun
I'm trying to figure out why they had pictures of her in the hospital BEFORE the surgery.

And the operation was to relieve a sleep apnea problem....not tonsillitis.

I'm betting this kid had a lot of problems.

9 posted on 12/30/2013 5:10:06 PM PST by Sacajaweau
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To: RushIsMyTeddyBear

“Thank goodness! Let her family decide.”

Most important is that her mother says she is alive and I’m sure the family is paying the hospital bills. Therefore, it is none of the hospital’s or the judge’s business.


10 posted on 12/30/2013 5:10:27 PM PST by Oliviaforever
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To: RushIsMyTeddyBear

I feel bad for the family.

But dead is dead. I don’t think artificially keeping her alive because you don’t want your daughter to be dead is solid reasoning.

You got her past Christmas and I’m glad for you. But it’s time to accept the fact that your daughter is no longer among the living.


11 posted on 12/30/2013 5:12:42 PM PST by Ouderkirk (To the left, everything must evidence that this or that strand of leftist theory is true)
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To: Morgana
From Wiki: Brain death is the irreversible end of brain activity (including involuntary activity necessary to sustain life) due to total necrosis of the cerebral neurons following loss of brain oxygenation. It should not be confused with a persistent vegetative state. Patients classified as brain-dead can have their organs surgically removed for organ donation. Even after brain death, the working of the heart might continue at a slow pace, but there will be no respiratory effort. Brain death is used as a legal indicator of death in many jurisdictions, but it is defined inconsistently. Various parts of the brain may keep living when others die, and the term "brain death" has been used to refer to various combinations. For example, although a major medical dictionary says that "brain death" is synonymous with "cerebral death" (death of the cerebrum), the US National Library of Medicine Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) system defines brain death as including the brainstem. The distinctions can be important because, for example, in someone with a dead cerebrum but a living brainstem, the heartbeat and ventilation can continue unaided, whereas, in whole-brain death, only life support equipment would keep those functions going.
12 posted on 12/30/2013 5:22:18 PM PST by JPG (Yes We Can morphs into Make It Hurt.)
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To: Morgana

This is a tough one, isn’t it? No one wants to see a kid die... but if she is truly brain dead, then that’s it.

Is still find I’m torn because around 35 years ago my great aunt either fell and smacked her head... or had something happen in her brain causing her to fall.

In the hospital, the doctors said she was beyond hope and they wanted to stop life support. My great-uncle fought them for awhile, but eventually my grandmother went to be with her brother because they were going to turn the life-support off.

Well... the woman came out of her coma. She wound up being fine... no real problems from the event (she had been a bit dotty prior... she liked to Windex light switches after people touched them and her house was SPOTLESS)... but she ended up outliving my great-uncle.

So ... I can understand how a mom might feel that the daughter is responding and I can imagine this is a terrible call to have to make.


13 posted on 12/30/2013 5:24:47 PM PST by Winstons Julia (Hello OWS? We don't need a revolution like China's; China needs a revolution like OURS.)
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To: Oliviaforever
I’m sure the family is paying the hospital bills.

And you know this how?

FWIW, keeping a patient on life support in an intensive care unit costs, at a minimum, $2,000-$4,000 per day and can run much higher depending on the patient’s condition, into hundreds of thousands a year.

Nobody recovers from brain death. Ever.

14 posted on 12/30/2013 5:35:10 PM PST by Drew68
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To: Morgana

This doctor was also brain dead at one point:

http://www.amazon.com/Proof-Heaven-Neurosurgeons-Journey-Afterlife/dp/1451695195


15 posted on 12/30/2013 5:43:18 PM PST by cll (Serviam!)
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To: cll
This doctor was also brain dead at one point:

No, he wasn't.

Here's what's happening to Jahi's brain right now. There is no brain activity whatsoever. None. It is not getting blood circulation. The cells are breaking down. Her brain is decomposing. Soon it will turn into a liquid and flow out of her nose.

She is not coming back to life.

16 posted on 12/30/2013 5:47:11 PM PST by Drew68
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To: Winstons Julia

Is a coma the same thing as being brain dead?


17 posted on 12/30/2013 5:51:48 PM PST by funfan
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To: Drew68

Read the book.


18 posted on 12/30/2013 5:53:43 PM PST by cll (Serviam!)
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To: funfan
Is a coma the same thing as being brain dead?

No. People in comas still have brain activity.

19 posted on 12/30/2013 5:55:07 PM PST by Drew68
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To: Drew68

If the family was not paying the bills, have no standing in the courtroom.

Furthermore, the mother thinks that her daughter is living.

Do you want to live in a country where an elected judge decides if you’re dead or alive?


20 posted on 12/30/2013 5:56:01 PM PST by Oliviaforever
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