Posted on 01/29/2014 10:00:04 AM PST by Tired of Taxes
Edited on 01/29/2014 10:02:17 AM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
Three weeks after Jahi McMath was taken out of Children's Hospital Oakland, a video claiming to show the girl's feet and toes responding to sensation has turned up on the Internet.
The video, posted on the "Keep Jahi McMath on life support" Facebook page on Sunday, showed a person's hand rubbing ice gently across the feet of a girl said to be Jahi, the Oakland teen who developed complications after tonsil, nose and throat surgery for sleep apnea and was declared brain-dead.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
Same here. We fought with the doctors for months to make sure he was given a fighting chance. In the end, though, he was not kept alive by artificial means. We were with him when he passed on. There was no doubt that he was gone.
The case of Jahi is different. I can understand and sympathize with her family.
Wow, that’s scary. Glad to hear that the coworker’s son recovered.
Thanks for the link; it’s unfortunate I’m ignorant of a lot of the terminology used there.
I did find this strange:
“Because the diagnosis of brain death in children is a complex clinical and ethical issue (8), three pediatric patients younger than 15 yr of age were excluded; thus the remaining 26 adult patients were examined as described above.”
Jahi was 13 when this happened.
I followed the link there about patient age, but only got an abstract saying it was different and controversial somehow. You’d think any test for brain death would be consistent and standard enough to nullify such controversy, but apparently not.
OK, I missed this about Table 1 with “painful or tactile stimuli”. Thanks again for the link and your posts, they’ve been very informative.
Terry wore full make up but that doesn’t mean she was a live and functioning human being
As you noted, they did exclude children in this study; however, I personally don’t think that being under 15 would preclude some of these ‘reflex’ results.
Every bit of this is very complex and very difficult. There are so many “what if’s” ... from her surgery, to the way the hospital initially handled the matter, to the ‘publicity’ aspect of the efforts to keep her on life support. I do wish they would quietly tend to their daughter rather than releasing video, etc. but I believe they are desperate to validate what they have done. Regardless, it is “all done” and everyone will have to live with the results and consequences. Perhaps watching their daughter continue to deteriorate until her heart will no longer beat, even with mechanical assist, is what these parents need to work through their intense, overwhelming grief. Jahi is already at peace ... I hope the parents find theirs.
Qiviut wrote: As you noted, they did exclude children in this study; however, I personally don’t think that being under 15 would preclude some of these ‘reflex’ results.
Well of course not, I just wondered what was so off-putting about brain death diagnoses in early teens and pre-teens that would make them exclude such data from a study.
From a scientific standpoint it makes no sense. Data are data; excluding any of it warrants a good explanation of why it’s not valid.
I can see where they’re coming from, even though (thank God) I’ve never experienced such a thing.
Some doctor(s) tell(s) you there’s a minor medical issue that your young child has and tells you it can be easily fixed.
They admit the child into the hospital, and the next thing you know, the same doctor or doctors tell(s) you your child died during this supposedly simple procedure, but they’re keeping the body on life support.
Then the hospital, in your eyes, is in a hurry to disconnect your child from this support they’ve put her on in the first place. They essentially give you and the child the bum rush out the door.
You barely secure a place in time to avoid unhooking your child from the life support, in case the doctor(s), who was/were wrong about how easy it was to fix your child’s problem, is/are wrong once again.
I’d be suspicious and possibly in denial too, no matter how many doctors lined up behind the original one(s) to tell me how dead my child was.
But that’s merely my speculation of their motives. In the scenario I described, the parents “finding peace” would be nearly impossible, as it would be for any parent who lost a child at the hands of a trusted authority figure.
By “finding peace” I mean in a spiritual way; however I know nothing about them personally so it’s a wish/prayer for them on my part only. I doubt there will be ‘peace’ with what happened & the way it happened, but perhaps one day there will be ‘forgiveness’ ... then again, maybe not.
Terri was alive, even though her body and brain were not fully functioning. There are many disabled people in such a condition.
Your description of what happened in this case is right on target, imho. That’s exactly how I see it, too.
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