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.
Missing from the article is the fact that Dr. Byrne has not actually examined McMath. Of course, he doesn't need to examine her. As well as being an outspoken opponent of posthumous organ donation, The "nationally-respected" Dr. Paul A. Byrne doesn't believe in the concept of brain death calling it anti-Catholic propaganda.
Those words say much to me, we have given up any and all parental rights to government and now to hospital officials.
I know lawyers and their greedy clients have wrought much of what is now expected, our children are not our own but are wards of the State!
Whether children are "allowed" to live, die, be treated or given medical treatment against our will and/or our religious beliefs, is up to the State, not up to the parents (looking to others to pick up the expenses, also have brought us to where we now find ourselves,)
They're not fighting to bring her home. They're fighting for her to continue receiving long-term care. So far, there has not been a facility capable of providing this care that has offered to take Jahi.
I have read that her body is actually in the early stages of decomposition. Is that possible while she is still being ventilated and her blood circulated? I realize it may be a dumb question, but I honestly don’t know the answer.
I’ve posted this before. Perhaps part of this family’s problem letting go is that they feel guilt. It seemed so easy to just have the surgery. Why would her parents cook healthy meals and exercise with her? If you notice, mom’s also obese.
The surgeon who operated on Jahi does not have a description of UPPP on his website. But, here's part of a description of UPPP on the website of another ear, nose, and throat specialist in California: Taken from this PDF file
Tonsillectomy and Uvulopalatopharyngoplasty (UPPP)
"This is a common surgical procedure done under general anesthesia. .... The surgery takes about one hour."
So, a surgeon is describing the surgery as "common" and taking "about one hour."
UPPP does seem to have a high rate of complications (including hemorrhage) but a very low rate of death. See here. That might explain why hospital staff seemed unconcerned about the bleeding (according to the family). But, we can bet they'll be watching more closely from now on...
I suppose so. I have never been involved in a case that has gone on that long. But it is horrific for the medical personnel forced to take part in it. It violates everything we try to do on a daily basis. I guess the only benefit is the child is not suffering....
I've known several adults that have had this procedure done. Several of them have had complications. The recovery time is long and painful.
I do not have this young ladies charts and I'm not a doctor so I can not tell anyone what happened to her. What I can see is the same thing that is out there for everyone else. She meets all the legal qualifications of being dead. 6 highly educated doctors have reached this conclusion and so has the coroner.
This new doctor is only keeping one thing alive and that is the parents hope that their child is not dead. He is keeping their hope alive but their daughter is gone. Let her go.
This was an if-you-have-a-problem-I-have-a-knife mindset. My best friend is a doc and a lady I'm very close to is an RN who works in the OR. I just had a new doc try and put me in line for another knee replacement and this was within the first five minutes on my first appointment with him. He was looking at the wrong xrays and making some huge jumps about things he did not know.
I looked at my wife made an excuse and was out of his office in record time. I spent 8 years undergoing multiple surgeries to rebuild my leg. This guy knew nothing about what I had been through.
We agree on one thing: Sadly, this young girl is (by all accounts) “brain dead.” I hope for a miracle, but I don’t expect one to happen.
I’ve also read that this surgery is not usually performed on children. But, this girl was 13 years old, so apparently, for some reason, it was determined as appropriate for an adolescent. The surgery performed on her was done by a pediatric ear, nose, and throat specialist who (presumably) must’ve performed the same surgery on other young people (at least I would think this wasn’t his first time).
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