Terri Schiavo family becomes involved in Jahi's case [Oakland Teen Facing Death]

UPI ^ | 1/1/14

[SoFloFreeper]

The family of Terri Schiavo, a comatose woman who died in 2005, has become involved in helping the family of a comatose California teenager.

Jahi McMath's family hopes to transfer the 13-year-old from Children's Hospital Oakland to New Beginnings, a New York facility dedicated to Schiavo's memory, the San Jose Mercury News reported. Jahi's family has gone to court to force Children's to keep her on a ventilator, while the hospital contends she is brain dead.

Schiavo was the focus of a lengthy legal battle between her husband, who wanted to remove her from a feeding tube and allow her to die, and her parents. In the months before her death, the case attracted national attention.

The Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Foundation said Tuesday it has been helping Jahi's family but has done so quietly because of the case's "sensitivity."

"Jahi McMath has been labeled a 'deceased' person. Yet she retains all the functional attributes of a living person, despite her brain injury," the foundation said. "This includes a beating heart, circulation and respiration, the ability to metabolize nutrition and more. Jahi is a living human being."

[SoFloFreeper]

So who wants to kill the little black girl in this case? The hospital? The state?

[Red in Blue PA]

Under CA law, the hospital as the right to pull the plug w/o the families permission! I was shocked to hear that.

So much for the compassionate left.

[Wolfie]

Who is paying for the care?

[JPG]

--So who wants to kill the little black girl in this case?--

The little black girl is already deceased. Brain death has occurred and no amount of anything will change that.

[Nifster]

No one wants to ‘kill’ this child. This child is already long gone. Pull the ventilator and it will become readily apparent

[Nifster]

right now the taxpayers are

[Nifster]

you are confused. Under California law a doctor may pronounce you dead. When you are so pronounced there is not much point in keeping mechanical devices going.

[Wolfie]

Nice to see so much support for socialized medicine, I suppose.

[Nifster]

you are clueless… this has nothing to do with socialized medicine. This young girl is a tragedy. She died during a medical procedure. Because people like you do not understand the human body and its functioning well enough you somehow think that keeping her on a ventilator is the same as keeping her ‘alive;. It is not. Kill the ventilator that is oxygenating her blood an coursing it though her veins and her death will be obvious.

[duckman]

“This child is already long gone.”

This situation is turning macabre, a doctor on one of the talk shows indicated that ‘What is happening is a delay of the body decomposition process’.

[Wolfie]

You misunderstand me. My issue is with those saying that she should be kept on the ventilator regardless of the costs. I wouldn’t care if private donations or the family was footing the bill, but since it’s the taxpayers, I do care. My contention is that those insisting she be kept “alive” are supporting socialized medicine, which is rare in these parts, no?

[Nifster]

that is exactly what is happening. The slowing won’t prevent it totally. The organs are slowly rotting inside this body.

I feel such heart ache for the parents. Not all medical procedures end well (even if no mistakes were made… and it seems this is one of those cases). They can’t wrap their brains around their child no longer being alive. Their grief does not change the truth

[Nifster]

ah okay I see your point… and yes I agree.

[fatima]

I was hoping they would get involved.

[jonrick46]

“My daughter is breathing,” Jahi’s mother, Nailah Winkfield, says. “She moves. When I go in there and touch her, she moves her whole body, her legs, her shoulders. How can you possibly say my child is dead if she responds to my voice?”

[BykrBayb]

I've resisted pinging Terri's List, because this appears to be a case of a dead body being kept fresh on life support. At least that's the picture the media has painted. I haven't seen anything offered by her family, or anyone else, which would bring that assessment into question.

Now that Terri Schiavo's family is openly supporting the family's position, I've decided to ping the list. I don't have enough information to cause me to doubt the claim that she's dead, but I hope some open discussion will bring some answers. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Wolfie]

It’s just odd to me that these types of cases are the only time FReepers want everybody to pay for someone else’s healthcare.

[exDemMom]

Are there any FReeper physicians who can comment on this case? I suspect that without central nervous system feedback, it is only a matter of time before organ failure sets in and the respirator becomes ineffective anyway, but I do not know. I’d love to hear from someone who has experience with artificially keeping functions going in a dead body.

I feel for the family, but prolonging the time the corpse is oxygenated won’t bring the girl back and just makes the situation psychologically more difficult for the other family members.

This is NOT another Terri Schindler. Terri was actually alive and healthy.

[grania]

I wouldn't have any trouble with the parents being told that the hospital and doctors have determined that in their opinion the child cannot be saved and they can no longer continue caring for her. Where I draw the line is whether the parents have the right to bring their child home to die or transport her to another facility.

This is about more than one child. As with the Terri Schiavo case, it's about the government and doctors and if they can force those decisions on the family. This is really about death panels, and the test case is one where a lot of medical professional want to expediate the girls passing.

On the practical side, if there was medical error that caused this to happen, should those responsible be forced to pay to meet the parents wishes? They're getting off the hook here.

[Silentgypsy]

I’ve heard of situations that involve the family’s cessation of benefits if the family member dies. My point is that there can be issues which aren’t apparent.