Posted on 01/05/2014 6:46:51 PM PST by Morgana
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.
Very sad...
Dr. Paul A. Byrne should probably have his medical license revoked or at least suspended. When the hospital turns over the body, they probably should have the December 12 death certificate appended.
Does this Dr. Byrne have a book to sell, or something?
Isn’t it a bit odd that a physician who has not even examined the patient claim that she is not dead when the physicians who did examine her have made that determination?
One article linked on another thread said that in an experiment back in the 1960s (IIRC), a corpse was kept on artificial support for 26 days before cardiac arrest finally occurred. I find myself morbidly wondering how long before the heart in this corpse gives out. It has been 24 days since she died.
I feel for the family, I really do. But this drawn out and continued maintenance of cardiac and minimal organ function in a corpse is beyond macabre. Is it just denial going on here, or is there a more serious psychological issue with the family?
Imagine what the care costs.
Who will pay for this? The insurance company? If so, how long? Does the family have this kind of money?
Is he just plugging his book? Sounds it...He uses the title of his book in the court papers...hmmm
I don't think this is true. It was more than that, a throat enlargement or something, to facilitate breathing because she had sleep apnea due to obesity. Way more than a simple tonsil removal.
Does anyone know if she is being hydrated?
Insurance is dicontinued when the person dies. The hospital has had thia girl for almost a month following her death. They will not recover the costs.
There is no one home.
In a declaration filed with the federal action by Jahi's family, Dr. Paul Byrne, a pediatrician who has questioned the definition of brain death, said he visited Jahi's bedside and observed her responding to her grandmother's voice and touch with a squirming movement.
I believe the family wanted her out of the hospital that entire 24 days. The hospital said they would not allow it. They kept her, their bill.
“Who will pay for this? The insurance company? If so, how long? Does the family have this kind of money?”
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If the family were paying for this, they would have the warm body of the deceased, kept artificially “alive”, disconnected from the ventilator in a New York minute.
So he has *not* performed the brain death confirmation protocol, and has merely observed what may very well be a Lazarus reflex which does not involve the central nervous system.
If he had performed the rather complicated protocol and found what he believes is evidence of life, the situation would be a bit different. Without having done the protocol himself, he has no basis on which to claim that those who did the examination are wrong in their findings.
Confused about this story - family prepping for lawsuit? can’t imagine losing a child but they have to know she’s not coming back right? & who’s paying for all this?
people always think “proper nutrition” can somehow reverse major organ failure...
If he had performed the rather complicated protocol and found what he believes is evidence of life,
Why would the hospital even allow him to do anything except "observe"? They are going to get sued out the wazoo for Jahi's botched post-operative care, aren't they? Then there is the question of whether the rather complex surgery, which was actually three different surgical procedures was appropriate.
In searching for Paul A Byrne, MD, I found that many freepers and DU'ers agree with each other. http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024253921
.they'll be forced to keep her hydrated and fed..
..why keep her on a vent if you don't intend to give her nutrition.
...they'll be forced to run periodic labs to check on electrolyes and she will almost assuredly have multiple bouts of pneumonia, and bed sores, and urinary tract infections, all of which will need to be treated perhaps in a hospital with expensive IV antibiotics.....
once you start down the road to "saving" a person already ruled as not having any brain activity, where do you stop?....
God gave us human bodies...we weren't met to live forever here on earth...
The courts required the hospital to keep her on a ventilator. It wasn’t so simple to release her to her parents. It is now.
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