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Hospital Agrees to Let Family Move Jahi McMath to New Medical Facility
LifeNews.com ^ | 1/04/14 | Steve Srtelt

Posted on 01/05/2014 2:15:51 AM PST by kathsua

After a protracted legal battle, Children’s Hospital Oakland reached an agreement with Jahi Mcmath’s family to allow a medical team to enter the hospital to perform the procedures necessary to move her to a medical facility that will continue her care and treatment.

Her mother and family say she is alive following a tonsillectomy gone awry that has left her in an incapacitated state since early December. The family in the case says the hospital has been starving Jahi for three weeks.

The San Francisco Chronicle has more details:

The agreement, described in the courtroom of Alameda County Superior Court Judge Evelio Grillo, is the latest development in an unusual battle between the hospital and the girl’s family, who is rejecting the declaration that Jahi is dead after doctors determined that she was brain dead.

On Friday, the Alameda County Coroner issued a death certificate stating that Jahi died on Dec. 12.

The family insists that Jahi is alive and that there is hope for recovery because her heart continues to beat and she remains on a ventilator, which will be kept on as she is moved.

Under the agreement, Jahi’s mother, Nailah Winkfield, is “wholly and exclusively responsible for Jahi McMath the moment custody is transferred in the hospital’s pediatric intensive care unit and acknowledge(s) that she understands that the transfer and subsequent transport could pact the condition of the body, including causing cardiac arrest.”

Grillo refused the family’s request to require doctors from the hospital or an outside physician to insert a feeding tube and a tracheostomy tube on Jahi. Christopher Dolan, attorney for Jahi’s family, said the agreement removes the barriers the family had faced in taking the girl out of the hospital. The hospital had been saying it would allow the girl to be transferred to another facility but had not heard from any such facility. Now, under the agreement, the hospital will simply allow workers to enter and remove Jahi.

Dolan said he would not discuss details about where or when Jahi will be moved.

“Right now, arrangements are being made, and what we needed to know was that when all the balls were in line, that we could move quickly, and not to have impediments, so that we all understood what the protocol was,” Dolan said outside court. “So this is a victory in terms of getting us one step closer.”

This week, a nationally-respected pediatrician said that Jahi McMath, who is at the center of a national debate about whether she should remain on life support, is not “brain dead” and can recover with proper care and nutrition.

Dr. Paul A. Byrne, a Neonatologist who is the Director of Neonatology and Director of Pediatrics at St. Charles Mercy Hospital in Oregon, Ohio, has given a new interview to a local NBC television station. Byrne is also a Clinical Professor of Pediatrics University of Toledo College of Medicine and the past president of the Catholic Medical Association.

Byrne told the station he does not believe that brain death is “true death” and said, with “proper nutrition and care,” McMath can have meaningful recovery to the degree that she would not meet the “brain death” criteria. He also said as much in court findings that Christopher Dolan, the attorney for McMath’s family.

Late Monday afternoon, the judge in the case granted an extension for life support after a legal request from Dolan.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: death; jahimcmath; malpractice; rescue
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The family should have an opportunity to seek a second opinion from another facility. Why should they believe a hospital that botched a routine tonsillectomy? I've read too many stories about supposedly dead people reviving in mortuaries to believe that doctors are infallible when it comes to determining who is dead.

why can't the people at the hospital understand that the family would be more accepting of their daughter's death if they knew doctors had tried to revive her instead or quickly writing her off as dead.

1 posted on 01/05/2014 2:15:51 AM PST by kathsua
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To: kathsua
"Under the agreement, Jahi’s mother, Nailah Winkfield, is “wholly and exclusively responsible for Jahi McMath the moment custody is transferred in the hospital’s pediatric intensive care unit and acknowledge(s) that she understands that the transfer and subsequent transport could pact the condition of the body, including causing cardiac arrest.”

Nothing like instilling a little fear into the family.

You know ... I AM the big dog hospital, and I know best, and if you take her away from ME ... wellll ... I can just tell you WHAT !

2 posted on 01/05/2014 2:39:54 AM PST by knarf (I say things that are true .. I have no proof .. but they're true.)
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To: kathsua
This was far from routine tonsillectomy and there have already been 5 or 6 different docs say the same thing. Three of the doctors were brought in by the family. After all of that they went doctor shopping and found this one who said the things they want to hear. They went to him because he is well published saying that brain dead is never completely dead. I feel sorry for them but this girl is dead. Let her go. What would happen if everyone they find to be brain dead was kept alive on machines? How long would it go on and for how many? It could go on for years for thousands of them. The coroner has issued a death certificate so you know that if there is insurance it is no longer paying for this venture. We the people, the working people are going to get stuck with it.

Just because we have the ability to keep her breathing and her heart beating with machines does not mean she is alive and it does not mean that it is the right thing to do.

3 posted on 01/05/2014 2:49:25 AM PST by oldenuff2no
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To: kathsua

It was NOT a routine surgery. Please refer to the three or four other article posts for more information.


4 posted on 01/05/2014 3:33:53 AM PST by goodwithagun (My gun has killed fewer people than Ted Kennedy's car.)
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To: oldenuff2no

If the case stands as you hold it, your conclusion is solid. On the other hand, hospitals should not be able to hold patients against the wishes of patients and next of kin—I initially thought that this was about the kid in Boston who has essentially become a ward of the hospital.


5 posted on 01/05/2014 3:53:37 AM PST by Hieronymus ( (It is terrible to contemplate how few politicians are hanged. --G.K. Chesterton))
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To: kathsua
why can't people at the hospital understand....

They understand perfectly. To them, that girl is either a live body or a dead body that they control, and the parents have lost all rights to get her back. They would want to be in control and would go to the courts if they decided she's alive and the parents wanted to take her home.

In my mind, whether this girl is alive or dead shouldn't even be part of the discussion. The issue is that the parents should always have the right to take their child home from the hospital. What's being tested here is death panels, and if the hospitals start getting away with this stuff, a lot more people will be declared dead and families will lose all ability to control the situation.

A wealthier more connected family would never be the one to challenge the hospital's playing God. I suspect that in those cases the family would more likely be part of the decision making process. My prayers are with this family, for supporting life, and saying they hospital doesn't get to say who will live and who will die.

6 posted on 01/05/2014 3:55:49 AM PST by grania
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To: knarf

That is called informed consent. If they moved her and her heart stopped (she is already dead) then many would scream they didn’t know the risks. The remainder is plain old contract law and a court order thst is unambiguous. The hospital had nothing to do of say in it. Why do you hate the hospital so much?


7 posted on 01/05/2014 4:10:36 AM PST by gas_dr (Trial lawyers AND POLITICIANS are Endangering Every Patient in America)
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To: grania

My prayers are with this family, for supporting life, and saying they hospital doesn’t get to say who will live and who will die.

You’re not supporting life, as there isn’t any, she’s brain dead. However, I agree if the parents want to take the child’s body elsewhere, wherever elsewhere is, let it happen.


8 posted on 01/05/2014 4:10:59 AM PST by flaglady47 (When the gov't fears the people, liberty; When the people fear the gov't, tyranny.)
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To: grania
This is not about hospital contort as you say. The hospital is making no decision. The parents can do whatever they want. But let's look at the law. Although this poor girl is dead let's assume the incorrect fact thst she is alive. You say that they parents should do whatever they want but the hospital is controlling. The law says that the hospital must make sure there is a safe discharge. If the hospital fails to meet this burden then it is liable for damages. If a patient goes out of the hospit to an unsafe condition, who are you going to blame? What if the child were in the hospital because of abuse? The parents have the right to control and take the child home and back to an abusivr situation? If they did, the hospital would liable. You would support that?

But the fact is this child is dead. Death labels are about rationing. There can be monretioning here because as a matter of science, medicine and then law the patient has died.

9 posted on 01/05/2014 4:18:55 AM PST by gas_dr (Trial lawyers AND POLITICIANS are Endangering Every Patient in America)
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To: grania

You are correct the hospital doesn’t determine who lives and dies. This determination it made my physicians. Five physicians who have examined the child have pronounced her dead. The one physician who says she is “alive” has not even examined her. So he is stirring the pot nothing more. Any physician knows you don’t diagnosed less you examine the patient. Before you say to me that I have not examined the patient how do I know, I am relying on the accuracy of the FIVE independent physicians of which the family selected three who HAVE made an examination.


10 posted on 01/05/2014 4:28:32 AM PST by gas_dr (Trial lawyers AND POLITICIANS are Endangering Every Patient in America)
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To: gas_dr
But the fact is the child is dead

I don't know that. There's no contention that these are bad parents, so I just don't see why the girl wasn't released to the parents without the hospital preventing it. This is allowed now, but it took a lawyer and the courts to let it happen....it shouldn't come to that.

I'll always put two things way ahead of the hospital or medical interests....the possibility of life and parents' rights.

11 posted on 01/05/2014 4:30:45 AM PST by grania
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To: gas_dr

It just sounded so threatening.


12 posted on 01/05/2014 4:36:05 AM PST by knarf (I say things that are true .. I have no proof .. but they're true.)
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To: kathsua

There might still be something underhanded going on right now—an effort to delay feeding her until starvation starts causing organ damage, making recovery increasingly less likely.

After three weeks of starvation, she is likely looking starved, her liver and kidneys are severely stressed, and her heart is at risk.


13 posted on 01/05/2014 5:52:40 AM PST by yefragetuwrabrumuy (There Is Still A Very Hot War On Terror, Just Not On The MSM. Rantburg.com)
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To: kathsua

quickly writing her off as dead? The hospital has been ventilating a corpse for almost a month.....

As for a botched tonsillectomy she did not have a tonsillectomy, she had a much larger procedure called a UPPP. The hospital cannot “botch” anything, its a building. It would be a doctor or nursing staff that did the botching, if there was any, which has not been proven

However, the hospital administration is absorbing a huge bill that will not be paid by family or insurance for every day they are forced to continue the charade.


14 posted on 01/05/2014 5:58:14 AM PST by Mom MD
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To: grania

You are correct the hospital doesn’t determine who lives and dies. This determination it made my physicians. Five physicians who have examined the child have pronounced her dead. The one physician who says she is “alive” has not even examined her. So he is stirring the pot nothing more. Any physician knows you don’t diagnosed less you examine the patient. Before you say to me that I have not examined the patient how do I know, I am relying on the accuracy of the FIVE independent physicians of which the family selected three who HAVE made an examination.


15 posted on 01/05/2014 6:22:48 AM PST by gas_dr (Trial lawyers AND POLITICIANS are Endangering Every Patient in America)
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To: Hieronymus
On the other hand, hospitals should not be able to hold patients against the wishes of patients and next of kin

From my understanding , they weren't. The hospital typically can't release someone who cannot function on their own until they have another entity to release them to. Either the coroner if she's dead, or another medical facility if she still requires medical care.

The powers-that-be had to issue a special waiver so she is released under the sole responsibility of her mother...(who probably STILL won't admit she's gone even if they say so)

----

IMHO, the girl's been dead since before Christmas, and the mother is a poster child for the selfish, entitled, its-not-my-fault shallow thinking generation the Democrats have purposely bred.

16 posted on 01/05/2014 6:27:17 AM PST by MamaTexan (Due to the newly adopted policy at FR, every post I make may be my last.)
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To: kathsua

Routine tonsillectomy, there is no such thing. Especially on an obese child with obstructive sleep apnea. People need to read the pre-op consent. I’m sure it mentions brain damage and death. Any surgery on the airway is high risk. Hospitals promote themselves as spa’s while they are dangerous places that should be avoided. Her post-op care may have been negligent, but a post-op bleeding tonsil cause me anxiety when I get to take of one. Too bad this poor child was the one in 500,000 that do die from routine surgery.


17 posted on 01/05/2014 6:29:19 AM PST by Babba Gi
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To: Babba Gi
Especially on an obese child with obstructive sleep apnea.

The more I read, the more I think this poor child was a causality of quick fix medicine. You know, the if-you-have-a-problem-take-a-pill mindset that seems to pervade our society.

Nothing is ever mentioned about the girl trying to lose weight...... at all.

18 posted on 01/05/2014 6:34:25 AM PST by MamaTexan (Due to the newly adopted policy at FR, every post I make may be my last.)
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To: gas_dr

Again, that’s not the issue. The parents should have the right to bring their child (or as those doctors say her body) home or move her to another facility, and the hospital should not have the right to stand in their way.


19 posted on 01/05/2014 6:48:00 AM PST by grania
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To: grania

You are correct. And as such the hospital does not have any responsibility to continue its present course. If the parents want to ventilate the corpse then they should be wholly responsible for transport, setting up other arrangements. You see that no other institution has accepted the body. As a matter of freedom I have zero problem with the parents frankly doing what they want with the body of their child. What you are asking is for the hospital to continue to provide services and participate in the facade and taxpayers to pay for it. I do not support this theory especially since we are dealing with a dead body.


20 posted on 01/05/2014 7:03:06 AM PST by gas_dr (Trial lawyers AND POLITICIANS are Endangering Every Patient in America)
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