A 13 year olds life support battle

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A 13 year olds life support battle

Pronounced brain dead but still fighting for her life

The family of a girl who was declared brain dead after tonsil surgery received another reprieve Monday from a judge who ordered the 13-year-old to be kept on life support for another week.

Doctors at Children’s Hospital Oakland say Jahi McMath will never recover, so they want to take her off the machines that are keeping her body functioning. Her family wants to continue life support, saying they have hope she will still pull through.

Shortly before a previous ruling would have allowed doctors to end life support at 5 p.m. Monday, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Evelio Grillo ordered the hospital to keep Jahi on a ventilator until Jan. 7 to give the family time to file a petition in state appellate court.

It’s the latest twist in a harrowing legal and medical fight that has reignited a heated debate about when life support should end for a severely brain-damaged person.

On Monday, the family’s lawyer filed suit in federal court, requesting that the hospital be compelled to perform a tracheotomy for breathing and to insert a feeding tube — procedures that would allow Jahi to be transferred to a facility willing to care for her. The hospital has said it’s unethical to perform surgery on a person who is legally dead.

With television cameras clustered outside the hospital, the family maintained a vigil as the deadline approached.

When Jahi’s mother, Nailah Winkfield, heard of the delay, she wept and hugged relatives outside the hospital. She said it was an answer to her prayers and a sign that she was right to keep fighting.

“Who wants to know the date and the time their child would die?” Winkfield said. “I don’t care what anyone has to say about what I’m doing. … I have to do what is right for me and for Jahi.”

She said she does not believe her daughter is dead because her heart is still beating.

Sam Singer, a hospital spokesman, said it would comply with the judge’s new order but would oppose any efforts by Jahi’s family to convince a court that she is still alive and entitled to the same rights as a living person.

The family’s lawyer, Christopher Dolan, said when he called Jahi’s mother at the hospital about the extension of the deadline, she said hospital staff had cleared family members out of a waiting room as doctors prepared to remove Jahi from the ventilator.

Doctors at Children’s Hospital and an independent pediatric neurologist from Stanford University have concluded Jahi is brain dead.

She underwent a tonsillectomy at the hospital Dec. 9 to treat sleep apnea and other issues. After she awoke from the operation, her family said, she started bleeding heavily and went into cardiac arrest. Then she was declared brain dead three days later.

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.

Arrangements also have been made, according to the documents, with an air ambulance company for a doctor to accompany Jahi on a private jet from Oakland to Long Island for $27,950.

By Monday night, the family’s fundraising website had raised more than $27,000 for a possible transfer.

Dolan said in a phone interview that he has also been in talks with a facility in Arizona because the family would like to keep Jahi as close as possible.

Hospital spokeswoman Cynthia Chiarappa has said officials would have to understand the capabilities of the New York facility before allowing a transfer. The hospital also said it would need to confirm there is lawful transportation included in any transfer plan and there is written permission from the coroner.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/new-york-hospital-jahi-mcmath-hope-article-1.1561394

http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/30/health/jahi-mcmath-girl-brain-dead/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2533061/District-judge-lead-emergency-hearing-life-support-13-year-old-Jahi-McMath-Friday.html

Source: https://survivalcavefood.com/blog/13_year_old_life_support_battle/