Jahi McMath Kept on Ventilator Until Jan. 7; Family Grateful for Extension
Jahi McMath's family won a last-minute extension on a restraining order that prevents Children's Hospital Oakland from removing her from a ventilator for one more week. The extension came one hour before the hospital was legally allowed, and said it would, disconnect the life support.
"This child was sitting on death row," family attorney Christopher Dolan told reporters after the judgment came down. "This was a facility that was hell bent on ending this child's life today, and a court stepped in."
Jahi's family was grateful for the extension and said it would give them more time to find a facility to care for the 13-year-old who was declared brain dead on December 12, following complications from a routine tonsillectomy. The family has been battling the hospital ever since that declaration, fully believing that Jahi can make a comeback and be healed.
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They have said that she responds to voices and have videotaped her apparently moving. Doctors, however, argued that the movements were "not unusual, not shocking, and not a sign of life," but simply part of the involuntary movements made by a dead body.
Jahi's family has been searching for a place to take care of their loved one and said that they found one in New York. The family has made arrangements for Jahi to be transferred via air ambulance but need doctors to insert a feeding tube as well as a breathing tube into her before transfer. Children's Hospital has said it will not perform the procedures on a dead body but would allow outside doctors to perform the procedures.
The McMath family is taking Jahi's case to a higher court and asking for a ruling that would overturn the diagnosis of brain death, which Children's Hospital plans to fight.
"No amount of prayer, no amount of hope, no amount of any type of medical procedure will bring her back," hospital spokesman Sam Singer told CNN. "The medical situation here in this case is that Jahi McMath died several weeks ago."
