Lawyer: Brain dead girl moved from Calif. hospital

[Teh One Who Knocks]

The Associated Press


http://i.imgur.com/iTuNOH1l.jpg

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — The 13-year-old California girl declared brain dead after a tonsillectomy has been taken out of Children's Hospital of Oakland, her family's attorney said late Sunday.

Jahi McMath left the hospital in a private ambulance shortly before 8 p.m. Sunday, Christopher Dolan told The Associated Press.

She was taken by a critical care team while attached to a ventilator but without a feeding tube, Dolan said. Her destination was not immediately disclosed.

"It was a very tense situation," said Dolan. "Everybody played by the rules."

David Durand, the hospital's Chief of Pediatrics, said the girl was released to the coroner. The coroner then released her into the custody of her mother, Nailah Winkfield, as per court order, Durand said in an email.

On Friday Alameda County Superior Court Judge Evelio Grillo said Jahi could be transferred under an agreement with Children's Hospital and the girl's mother will be held accountable for developments that could include Jahi going into cardiac arrest.

The Alameda County coroner's office issued a death certificate for the girl Friday but said the document is incomplete because no cause of death has been determined pending an autopsy.

"They may have issued one but we don't have it. We don't think she's dead," Dolan said. "We got all the necessary legal paperwork in order to get Jahi out of there."

A court injunction prohibiting Children's Hospital from removing the ventilator that has kept Jahi's heart pumping since her Dec. 9 surgery expires at 5 p.m. Tuesday.

Dolan wouldn't specify where the girl was taken but he said "they are going to care for her, respect her and love her. And they're going to call her Jahi, not 'the body.'"

After spending weeks in a very public and tense fight with the hospital, Jahi's family does not plan to disclose any more about their plans for her continued care until she is resettled, her uncle, Omari Sealey, told reporters on Friday.

The hospital has argued since before Christmas that Jahi's brain death means she is legally dead and she should be disconnected from the ventilator. It also has refused to fit her with a feeding tube or a breathing tube that would help stabilize her during a move, saying it was unethical to perform medical procedures on a dead person.

Hospital spokesman Sam Singer said officials were not informed where the girl was being taken.

"We hope that the family finds peace in this very, very tragic story," he said.

Winkfield, refusing to believe her daughter is dead as long as her heart is beating, has gone to court to stop the machine from being disconnected. She has wanted to transfer Jahi to another facility and hoped to force Children's Hospital either to insert the tubes or to allow an outside doctor to do the procedures.

Grillo on Friday rejected the family's move to have the hospital insert the tubes, noting the girl could be moved with the ventilator and intravenous fluid lines she has now. He also refused to compel the hospital to permit an outside doctor perform the procedures on its premises.

Dolan said Friday the family has located an unaffiliated physician to put in the tubes and that an outpatient clinic in New York that treats people with traumatic brain injures has expressed willingness to care for Jahi.

Jahi went into cardiac arrest while recovering from surgery to remove her tonsils, adenoids and uvula along with bony structures from her nose and throat and palate tissue. Three doctors have declared the girl brain dead based on exams and tests showing no blood flow or electrical activity in either her cerebrum or the brain stem that controls breathing.

Multiple outside doctors and bioethicists observing the case have confirmed that a patient in that condition meets the legal criteria for death and has no chance of recovering.

The judge earlier this week ordered Children's Hospital to keep Jahi on the ventilator until Jan. 7 at 5 p.m. He said Friday that he would dissolve the injunction as soon as Winkfield assumes custody of her daughter's body.

Hospital spokesman Sam Singer said that if the girl is not transferred by the deadline, her family would have to seek an extension or the ventilator would be removed.

[RBP]

Denial ain't just a river in Egypt.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

This whole family is brain dead

[RBP]

Has anyone bothered to ask who's paying for this lunacy?

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Has anyone bothered to ask who's paying for this lunacy?

I have seen pictures of this family and they definitely don't look like the type that can afford hundreds of thousands of dollars of this type of care. :|

[Teh One Who Knocks]

"They may have issued one (death certificate) but we don't have it. We don't think she's dead," Dolan said.

:|

Unplug her from all the equipment and we'll see if she isn't dead or not.

[RBP]

The worst part is I saw a quote from the coroner early on that said the reason they wanted her was because there is a limited amount of time after brain death to determine cause of death. So it's very possible they will never know why it happened.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

It's sad that this girl died but now it has gone beyond stupid. I saw a report that said the family was giving her solid food less than 48 hours after she just underwent freaking throat surgery. How fucking stupid can you be? I'm guessing that the ones mostly responsible for the girl's death is the family itself if they in fact did give her food like that when she was still in recovery in the hospital.

[Godfather]

This is a mess... and as dumb as these parents seem to be, you have to feel sorry for them. They obviously don't understand and cannot cope, hopefully they'll see the light soon for what is left of this girl's dignity.

Has anyone posted the similar-but-opposite story of the brain-dead mother & 14-week old compromised fetus in Texas that legally cannot be taken off support even against the family's wishes? I thought that was an interesting juxtaposition when I saw the two on google news today.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

By TERRY COLLINS and LISA LEFF Associated Press


The family of a 13-year-old California girl who was declared brain dead after suffering complications from sleep apnea surgery has achieved its goal of moving the girl to a new facility for long-term care, but medical experts say the ventilator she's on will not work indefinitely.

Jahi McMath's uncle said Monday that she is now being cared for at a facility that shares their belief that she still is alive.

While the move ends what had been a very public and tense fight with the hospital, it also brings new challenges: caring for a patient whom three doctors have said is legally dead because, unlike someone in a coma, there is no blood flow or electrical activity in either her cerebrum or the brain stem that controls breathing.

The bodies of brain dead patients kept on ventilators gradually deteriorate, eventually causing blood pressure to plummet and the heart to stop, said Dr. Paul Vespa, director of neurocritical care at the University of California, Los Angeles, who has no role in McMath's care. The process usually takes only days but can sometimes continue for months, medical experts say.

"The bodies are really in an artificial state. It requires a great deal of manipulation in order to keep the circulation going," Vespa said.

Brain-dead people may look like they're sleeping, he added, but it's "an illusion based on advanced medical techniques."

The family and their lawyer would not disclose where the eighth grader was taken on Sunday night after a weekslong battle to prevent Children's Hospital Oakland from removing her from the breathing machine that has kept her heart beating for 28 days.

The uncle, Omari Sealey, told reporters Monday that Jahi traveled by ground and that there were no complications in the transfer, suggesting she may still be in California. Nurses and doctors are working to stabilize her with intravenous antibiotics, minerals and supplements while she remains on the ventilator, but her condition is too precarious for additional measures, lawyer Christopher Dolan said.

The new facility has "been very welcoming with open arms. They have beliefs just like ours," Sealey said. "They believe as we do ... It's a place where she is going to get the treatment she deserves."

The nearly $50,000 in private donations the family has raised since taking the case public helped cover the carefully choreographed handoff to the critical care team and transportation to the new location, Sealey said. The facility, where Jahi is expected to remain for some time, is run by a charitable organization that so far hasn't sought payment, Dolan said.

Both men refused to name the facility or reveal where it was located, saying they wanted to prevent staff members and the families of other patients from being harassed.

Jahi underwent surgery at Children's Hospital on Dec. 9 to treat severe sleep apnea, a condition where the sufferer's breathing stops or becomes labored while sleeping. Surgeons removed her tonsils and other parts of her nose and throat to widen the air passages.

While recovering in the Intensive Care Unit, she bled heavily from her mouth and nose and eventually went into cardiac arrest. Doctors at the hospital declared her brain dead three days later and moved Dec. 20 to remove her from the ventilator.

Her mother, Nailah Winkfield, refusing to believe her daughter was dead as long as her heart was beating, went to court to stop the machine from being disconnected and twice won injunctions prohibiting the hospital from acting. On Friday, the two sides reached an agreement allowing Jahi to be transferred if Winkfield assumed responsibility for further complications.

An Alameda Superior Court judge who had granted the injunctions refused, however, to force Children's Hospital to fit Jahi with the breathing and feeding tubes that Dolan said are necessary to get her placed in a long-term care facility. Under the judge's order, the hospital released Jahi directly to the coroner, who then released her into the custody of Winkfield.

A federal judge cancelled a hearing on the case scheduled for Jan. 7 after the family and the hospital reached an agreement to transfer Jahi, saying the request for the hearing was now moot.

Sealey, the girl's uncle, said Monday that his sister is relieved her persistence paid off and "sounds happier." He criticized Children's Hospital for repeatedly telling Winkfield they did not need her permission to remove Jahi from the ventilator because the girl was dead.

"If her heart stops beating while she is on the respirator, we can accept that because it means she is done fighting," he said. "We couldn't accept them pulling the plug on her early."

Dolan, the family's lawyer, said Jahi's condition suffered because the hospital refused to feed her once she was declared brain dead. The family plans to pursue a federal court lawsuit alleging that Children's Hospital violated their religious and privacy rights. Winkfield has described herself as a devout Christian. A hearing in the case is scheduled for Tuesday, although the hospital has moved to have it canceled on the grounds that it has become moot with the move.

"She's in very bad shape," he said. "You would be too, if you hadn't had nutrition in 26 days and were a sick little girl to begin with."

[DemonGeminiX]

The grief they must be feeling is terrible to go to these lengths, but they really need to let her go.