Posted on 01/09/2014 9:34:58 PM PST by Morgana
The lawyer for the family of Jahi McMath, the 13-year-old who has been declared brain dead, said Wednesday that doctors successfully inserted a gastric tube and tracheotomy tube into the teenager at an as yet undisclosed facility.
Jahi was transferred from Oakland Children’s Hospital January 5 after a protracted legal battle between the family and the hospital which declared Jahi brain dead December 12 and sought to remove her from a ventilator.
The arraignment to move Jahi was reached during a hearing Friday before Alameda Superior Court Judge Evelio Grillo under which Jahi’s mother, Nailah Winkfield, could remove her daughter from the hospital as long as she assumed full responsibility.
Christopher Dolan told reporters that Jahi’s health is “improving,” and labeled the surgery “a success.”
“She is doing very well and getting the treatment she should have gotten 28 days ago,” Dolan said in a text message, according to the Oakland Tribune. “Doctors are optimistic that her condition has stabilized and that her health is improving from when she was taken from Children’s Hospital Oakland.”
Illustrating the daily ebb and flow, on Monday, Nolan was far less optimistic. “She’s in very bad shape,” he said, adding examinations show Jahi’s medical condition “is not good.”
The hospital reiterated its position that Jahi is brain dead. Deterioration “became inevitable the moment she died,” according to Dr. Heidi Flori, a critical care physician at Children’s Hospital.
The Los Angeles Times reported that Dr. Flori said in a court declaration filed in U.S. District Court that “The medical team and I believe that additional and more dramatic signs of the body’s deterioration will continue to manifest over time, regardless of any procedures and regardless of any heroic measures that any facility in the country might attempt.”
At the recommendation of doctors Jahi underwent an operation on December 9 to remove her tonsils, adenoids and extra sinus tissue to treat pediatric obstructive sleep apnea.
Afterwards “The teen girl was alert and talking to doctors after the procedure, even asking for a Popsicle because her throat hurt,” CNN reported. “That was a relief in some ways because she’d expressed concerns to her family about the surgery, fearing she would never wake up from it, her uncle has said.”
So you think people in a comma shouldn’t be cared for?
Are her heart and lungs functioning without machines?
If they have, then she is indeed dead.
Exactly! How could the heart and lungs still be operating without the brain.
If you take her off the ventilator for long enough, her heart will stop beating.
If a machine is keeping her heart and lungs going, she is indeed dead.
Jahi is on a ventilator (aka life support machine) that is mechanically pumping oxygen into her lungs. Unplug that machine and respiration will cease immediately followed by circulation within minutes.
Jahi McMath: Family says brain-dead teen's body may be too deteriorated to save
Read the complete story at the link.
I would just like to know if her heart will beat, unassisted, so long as oxygen is pumped into her lungs. If so, she is circulating her own blood thus her brain --right down to the stem-- is not yet 'dead'. She is not yet a cadaver if her heart will beat on its own so long as 02 level is maintained by machinery if needed.
Her brain stem is dead along with the rest of her brain. Yes her heart continues to beat with the aid of a ventilator pumping oxygen into her lungs. But it won't keep doing this forever. Her blood pressure is already very low and continues to drop. Read the link to the article I posted above. It explains things a lot better than I can.
There are going to be lots of really stupid looking people “if” this girl ever “wakes” up....
Um, your lack of education is showing. If the brain stem is dead, the heart is not beating without external stimulation.
From what I’ve read, this poor child will never ‘wake up’. She is far less here than a severely comatose patient. The circus is looking more like an exploitation for gain than grieving parents. Perhaps this is another manifestation of exploitation via magic thinking, like occurred with the Treyvon Martin hysteria?
The heart has its own pacemaker independent of the brain. As long as it has oxygen, it continues to beat. The heart could actually be removed from the body, placed in saline solution, given oxygen, and still continue to beat.This is why although the brain is dead, the heart continues to beat.
"There is speculation by a number of web commentators and bloggers that this insistence on “brain damaged and disabled” versus brain dead, and “really most sincerely dead” is simply an attempt to preserve Jahi’s “aliveness” in preparation for a flurry of court actions designed at recovering monetary damages in excess of California’s pain and suffering caps. The uncle, in a recorded press conference referred to the number of $250,000 as “chump change”, and suggested that the more appropriate number is $30,000,000. Thirty million versus $250,000. Maybe it’s just me, but it is pretty unseemly to be tossing around these kind of numbers while Jahi is still alive."
Clearly it is you who does not understand basic human anatomy and physiology. The heart does not require a brain to function, only oxygen (provided from the lungs via machine). But eventually even fresh oxygen will not be enough to keep the heart pumping --as is being currently demonstrated by Jahi's falling blood pressure.
Her brain is DEAD.
So is Joe Biden brain dead and he is VP...
I will be the first to admit I know almost nothing about what constitutes being brain dead...
I do know in the past other "brain dead" people were actually not "brain dead" and were declared as such either though incompetent wrong diagnosis or woke up as a "miracle"...
About 15 years ago a friend of the family had brain surgery.
Now she is 92 years of age, and through the years her mental capacity has progressively improved.
I’m hardly a brain surgeon, but I can see that this dear woman is better mentally at 92 than she has been since her brain surgery. Don’t people usually have less cognitive abilities as they age?
No doubt about it - the brain can heal!
From the FAQ in #35
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Q: But her heart is still beating! Her body is warm! And her kidneys are making urine! Are you telling me that dead people have beating hearts? Should we make caskets waterproof to protect the ground from all the urine the dead people make?
A: Clearly you don't understand basic human anatomy and physiology. The heart, kidneys, and lungs do not require a brain to function. If I hooked a human kidney up to an oxygenated blood flow, it would produce urine, no brain (or batteries) required. Same thing goes for the lungs, heart, and all the other cellular mechanisms. Because Jahi's body is hooked up to a ventilator, it pumps oxygenated air into her lungs. Her lungs, also requiring no brain input to exchange gases, continue to exchange oxygen for carbon dioxide, and her cells which are receiving blood flow (remember, her brain is NOT getting blood flow) will continue to function. So her body will stay warm, her heart will still beat, and her kidneys will still make urine.
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