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Jahi McMath’s father sues hospital for trying to kill his daughter
LifeSiteNews ^ | 12/17/15 | Father Mark Hodges

Posted on 12/17/2015 12:13:30 PM PST by wagglebee

OAKLAND, California, December 17, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) – 13-year-old Jahi McMath went into cardiac arrest after a routine tonsillectomy in 2013. Jahi was in oxygen-deprived cardiac arrest for two hours, causing brain damage. Though Jahi lived, her doctors said she was "brain-dead," and UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital Oakland and Alameda County officials issued a death certificate. 

Since Jahi has been declared "dead," insurance no longer covers her health care.

Jahi's mother, Nailah Winkfield, sued Jahi's doctor, Dr. Frederick Rosen, for failing to tell her that Jahi's surgery would be "complex and risky" due to Jahi's susceptibility to heavy bleeding and for failing to share that risk with nurses taking care of her recovery after surgery.

Jahi began coughing up blood the morning after the surgery; the nurses didn't know she had a risk of serious hemorrhage. The nurses told Nailah Winkfield that Jahi's bleeding was "normal." One nurse even used a suction device to clear the bleeding. Eventually, Jahi's heart stopped, causing brain damage.

Now, Jahi's biological father, Milton McMath, has sued as well. 

Jahi caught the attention of the media when her mother refused to take her off life support. The Winkfields removed Jahi from Oakland to New Jersey, where she continues to live and her vitals are strong.

The Winkfields note that Jahi's heart is beating on its own, and her organs are not failing, as would be the case if she were brain-dead. They have released several videos showing Jahi moving and reacting to stimuli.

In October, a judge ruled that Jahi's family could present evidence to determine if she is alive or dead. If dead, the suit would be for wrongful death, with a maximum of $250,000 for damages.

If Jahi is declared legally alive, the lawsuit could be for many millions of dollars.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: euthanasia; jahimcmath; moralabsolutes; prolife
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To: caww

The vid links posted also only showed her hand. They were zoomed in tight. Why not zoom out and show the entire scene?


141 posted on 12/19/2015 12:19:31 PM PST by goodwithagun (My gun has killed fewer people than Ted Kennedy's car.)
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To: ifinnegan

That’s supposed to be Biker Babe, but now that I think about it, I’ve evolved into more of a Baker Babe. LOL

I read my post to my husband. He laughed, but then reminded me that some people make no attempt to conceal their disdain. A couple years ago, we were shopping, and a couple women started grabbing shoes off the rack and throwing them at him, while calling him names like “cripple” and “retard.” This was by far the most overt show of hatred he’s experienced, though worse things have been done to him behind his back.

Most of the people we encounter are very supportive. Those who view my husband negatively for his disabilities tend to keep their mouths shut about it. I’d like to think it’s out of politeness, but anyone whose brain works that way is probably just too cowardly and dishonest to say what they really think. Either way, I’m grateful my husband is rarely confronted with their ignorance and hatred.

When I see the nasty comments some FReepers make about Jahi McMath, Terri Schiavo, and others with cognitive impairments, I wonder how these FReepers behave in public. Are they the ones who keep their distance, curl their faces up, and whisper vulgarities in hushed tones; or are they the ones who scream and throw shoes?


142 posted on 12/19/2015 12:20:52 PM PST by BykrBayb (Lung cancer free since 11/9/07. Colon cancer free since 7/7/15. ~ Þ)
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To: goodwithagun

She is never fully exposed in that way...were she you would see the muscle mass is shrinking...also the distortions in her body....the fact they are keeping her room very cold does give pause on why they would do so...and there is an ordor comon to that of a decomposing body.

And why would they have her at a
Home” instead of a clinic?...there’s so any things wrong with this entire situation.

I’ll write more later...back to work...


143 posted on 12/19/2015 12:23:21 PM PST by caww
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To: goodwithagun

It’s nice that he has a strong sense of duty, but if he doesn’t have the brains to recognize obvious signs of life, he’s a detriment to his coworkers and those he’s tasked with saving. I doubt he would risk his life for someone he’s convinced has been dead for two years. He should not be trusted to save the lives of people who are obviously alive, if he believes everyone with edema is dead.


144 posted on 12/19/2015 12:31:24 PM PST by BykrBayb (Lung cancer free since 11/9/07. Colon cancer free since 7/7/15. ~ Þ)
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To: caww
there's so any things wrong with this entire situation.

Yes. For example, the family is tasked with caring for Jahi, when medical professionals should be paid by the insurance to provide care. I don't think her family is up to the task. They should know better than to apply acrylic nails to fingers suffering from edema. You can see the damage from this practice. Still, they must be doing something right. Jahi is still alive two years later. A lot of hard work has gone into taking care of her. That alone would be hard enough, without having to fight off bastards wanting her killed. I can see some mistakes the family has made, but I'm impressed with them for the mistakes they haven't made.

As a fellow caregiver, I can say, it's not a job for sissies. It's hard work, and it doesn't help to have people actively getting in the way. I can understand the mindset of a caregiver who loves unconditionally. I cannot understand the mindset of strangers who want that care to cease.

145 posted on 12/19/2015 12:50:57 PM PST by BykrBayb (Lung cancer free since 11/9/07. Colon cancer free since 7/7/15. ~ Þ)
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To: BykrBayb

Lol! Keep it up. I’m enjoying the rant!


146 posted on 12/19/2015 2:26:26 PM PST by goodwithagun (My gun has killed fewer people than Ted Kennedy's car.)
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To: BykrBayb

“That’s supposed to be Biker Babe”

I should have realized that.

You can see where my head is at, thinking it to be baker.


147 posted on 12/19/2015 2:33:37 PM PST by ifinnegan (Democrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)
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To: goodwithagun

I’m not surprised. It would take a higher brain function for you to understand the seriousness of killing someone for having low brain function. I’m not surprised that the irony would escape you.


148 posted on 12/19/2015 3:42:49 PM PST by BykrBayb (Lung cancer free since 11/9/07. Colon cancer free since 7/7/15. ~ Þ)
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To: BykrBayb

Yay! More! I love a good social media style meltdown!


149 posted on 12/19/2015 4:42:47 PM PST by goodwithagun (My gun has killed fewer people than Ted Kennedy's car.)
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To: BykrBayb

People have been on life support for well over a decade before....As long as ‘a brain dead patient’ is kept on a ventilator, the heart will still beat, the lungs will still function, the kidneys will still make urine, and muscle reflexes will still exist. ....The heart rate is essentially reflex. It doesn’t require the brain to function. The actual beating is triggered in the heart by the sinoatrial node, but the rate is controlled by the ‘brain stem’.... Her kidneys may function because her heart is pumping oxygenated blood through her... Her blood is oxygenated because a machine is breathing for her.... But a beating heart does not equal life....the heart is just a muscular pump, and it does not determine the person; the brain does.

Additionall...the body only starts to decompose fully if the cells are deprived of oxygen and die.... However the ventilator is continuing to oxygenate her blood and her heart is continuing to pump that oxygenated blood...and her cells are being fed numerous nutrients as well as massive hormones......thus her decomposing body is being artificially sustained, but it’s still decomposing and well was over a year ago.

The family’s claims are exactly that, claims, with ‘no verifiable confirmation’ the claims have any merit, despite the more than adequate time for them to get that “proof”. They have not done so....Unless a ‘legitimate’ medical facility is going to offer to enroll her in a study to test for all of the possible signs of continuing existence and her mother accepts the offer, it’s moot. ...

So far the only people to testify to her condition are her family and the personnel allied with the sketchy institute none of whom have personally examined her in a manner to possibly overturn the diagnosis of brain death, or to define a new category........

So, for me, she’s dead and will remain dead. ......there has been a death certificate issued. The burden of proof IS on the family their attorneys and the medical personnel who wish to overturn the diagnosis she’s alive.... They haven’t produced one credible shred of evidence to date.

If the plan was to use medical test results as “proof” to refute an alleged prior misdiagnosis, the testing should have been done under the authority of a licensed and qualified MD, at a hospital or other clinical facility qualified to provide the services. That didn’t happen.


150 posted on 12/19/2015 5:29:03 PM PST by caww
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To: trisham

As mentionded prior the family is going to extreme lengths to “show” what they want people to see.....but they have no evidence whatsoever to substantiate what they’re saying........For someone to say the patient is not dead because a random neuron is still firing is like saying the car is not totaled, because the horn is still making noise.

However....regarding reflexes..... If a neurologist sits at the bedside of a patient ‘on life support’ and scratches the sole of her foot with a needle, the patient will probably pull her foot away.... Does that mean she isn’t brain dead?....Not necessarily because...THAT particular reflex is controlled by the spinal cord and not the brain or brain stem. ...The brain stem controls certain automatic functions of the body, like breathing, blinking, and swallowing...She’s not breathing, blinking, or swallowing.

What Jahi’s family is seeing is totally different than what would be traditionally a body to look like almost two years after a declaration of death....Because with the heart still beating and respiration maintained by the ventilator, Hormone replacement to regulate other essential bodily functions, and some occasional movements, the body just doesn’t seem “dead” TO THEM.... But it is being artificially sustained while decomposing at the same time....

Numerous Doctors have actually examined and tested her, both from various clinics and Institutes who have all “confirmed” that her brain has no blood flow...The brain flow scans in brain dead patients show no blood flow to the brain, so the brain is physiologically absent.. Once brain tissue dies, it is dead forever.....she will never recover.


151 posted on 12/19/2015 5:43:57 PM PST by caww
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To: goodwithagun

Remember a beating heart does not indicate “life” here’s a heart beating without a body.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEuSCPifKhA


152 posted on 12/19/2015 5:56:25 PM PST by caww
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To: goodwithagun

Why not zoom out and show the entire body?

Good question.... for all we ever see of Jahi are photos of a contracted decomposing hand or a foot. Sometimes we see half of her face, eyes closed, or wearing her Mom’s Michael Kors sunglasses...... We’ve even see Jahi posed sitting up cross legged with her head cut out of the photo...... What we NEVER see is a single photograph or video of the WHOLE of Jahi. There’s a reason for this.....

I don’t believe a single recent picture has been taken of her because any recent picture would leave it clear to anyone she’s not just dead, but dead, dead....It would be all to obvious.


153 posted on 12/19/2015 6:09:16 PM PST by caww
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To: LadyDoc

The fact is that she had a ‘uvulopalatopharyngoplasty’ performed ...not a ‘routine’ tonsillectomy.


154 posted on 12/19/2015 6:12:48 PM PST by caww
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To: BykrBayb
You didn't mention anything about his brain activity...or lack of....is there still blood flow to the brain?...which in Jahi’s case there is not....and why Doctors, after numerous testings, confirmed such.

I cannot comment on how stroke victims respond to their treatments nor what treatments are helpful or not to your husband.

I can say that my brother had a brain aneurysm, rushed to the emergency room of course for surgery only to find they could not operate fully as hoped but did what they could.......the damage was severe...... they hooked him up to all the usual and explained to my sister-in- law he didn't have much time. Daily his bloody fluids caused further and further swelling of his entire body...he became completely unrecognizable.....

After about a week of this her son realized his mother wasn't about letting go....so we all prayed very much that God would reach her some way. ..and he did... She shared that while sitting near him he opened his eyes in such a way as she described...."What are you doing to me!"...."Stop this!"...She then knew what she had to do for her husband.

She spoke with the Dr's.of course and determined to release him from the hook ups one by one.....he left this world after the first one was released.

I share this because in every situation where "life"...and I'll use this term "SUPPORT" is helpful in sustaining "life".. ONLY the family can determine what is best for their loved one... But I believe no matter what decision is made the outcome will still be in God's hands.

In Jahi's case there's just too many variables and unmet questions that could be answered but the family refuses to not only acknowledge possible, but refuse to allow further for a correct determination at this juncture...... Additionally all the courts to date have heard no evidence presented to change the status of the death determination initially, nor that there's something "new" to alter that decision.....So something else is going on with the family and Attorneys that they're refusing confirmation of Jahi's condition at this time.

155 posted on 12/19/2015 6:47:21 PM PST by caww
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To: wagglebee

Bad hospitals like to kill their mistakes and write inaccurate nurse’s notes to cover it up.


156 posted on 12/23/2015 8:19:30 AM PST by floriduh voter (Send Barry from the white house to the big house (never happen but I can dream.))
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To: wagglebee

Merry Christmas Pro Life Ping List.


157 posted on 12/23/2015 8:20:12 AM PST by floriduh voter (Send Barry from the white house to the big house (never happen but I can dream.))
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To: caww
Good question.... for all we ever see of Jahi are photos of a contracted decomposing hand or a foot. Sometimes we see half of her face, eyes closed, or wearing her Mom’s Michael Kors sunglasses...... We’ve even see Jahi posed sitting up cross legged with her head cut out of the photo...... What we NEVER see is a single photograph or video of the WHOLE of Jahi. There’s a reason for this.....

Seeing those pictures and videos makes me feel ill. Not for the signs of decay, but for the various people posing with the body, holding its hands, kissing it. That just turns my stomach. It is something like watching the movie "Weekend at Bernie's"--which I never watched because the subject matter is too disturbing.

158 posted on 12/27/2015 6:39:32 AM PST by exDemMom (Current visual of the hole the US continues to dig itself into: http://www.usdebtclock.org/)
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To: exDemMom
...."Not for the signs of decay, but for the various people posing with the body, holding its hands, kissing it. That just turns my stomach"......

Which is exactly what I mean by the lengths this family will go to present a "picture" of something which isn't so.

There's a video of the corpse finger retracting, from some time ago, and natural that a corpse does so. But the family presented it as "evidence" she's alive.....

This is all about suites, which the natural father just recently filed.......the thing is if she's dead, the suit would be for wrongful death, with a maximum of $250,000 for damages........but if declared legally alive, the lawsuit could be for many millions of dollars........All these measures the family is taking to artificially maintain 'an illusion of life where none exists' cannot be maintained indefinitely..... once cessation of all brain activity is confirmed, there is no recovery.

So it's 'up to the family to prove she's alive' since a death certificate was issued by a corner, and why they are pressing this to the point that an autopsy would be almost impossible to determine cause of death.....and even with 6 Physicians stating she was dead at the hospital, and at least three neurologists confirmed Jahi was unable to breathe on her own, had no blood flow to her brain and had no sign of electrical activity in her brain, the family continually refuses to accept this.

Further...if she's still declared dead then the family owes the state for all this artificial means of medical care to a dead body....and also can sue for desecration of a corpse. So the family has to keep on keeping on with this fraud and scam.

Another thing is the elasticity is fading from the tissues under her skin and main organ function... plus there is a ample evidence of muscle contraction which will continue and get worse.....which is why we never see more than a hand or her face. I saw her leg from over a year ago and this was clearly evident.....what was diabolical IMO was they posed her legs as if she was crossing them "for the mother" to show she's alive....the muscle contraction and elasticity clearly evident.

In the beginning of all this one neurologist said that Jahi is not getting life support, she is getting organ support and that no hope or heroic measure will make any difference to that fact....I agree....but after this long even the organs are surely in extremely bad shape.

159 posted on 12/27/2015 2:21:31 PM PST by caww
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