Jahi McMath: Family seeks to have brain-death ruling overturned, girl declared alive

[alp227]

Source: Oakland Tribune

OAKLAND -- An attorney for the family of Jahi McMath says new tests show the 13-year-old girl has regained brain activity, and he is asking a Bay Area court to take the unprecedented step of reversing its finding that she is dead.

In court documents filed Tuesday, attorney Christopher Dolan challenges long-standing medical and legal definitions of death on behalf of the Oakland girl, who has been kept on machines that feed her and keep her organs functioning since a medical mishap in December.

Experts say Jahi's recovery would be nothing short of a miracle. Unlike a coma, brain death is the loss of all brain function, an irreversible and universally accepted form of death. Jahi would be the first known person to regain consciousness after a declaration of brain death, experts say.

"It's the only case of its kind ever," Dolan said by phone Wednesday. "Jahi is 'Patient 1.' This is a real person we are talking about, a live person who feels pain. She isn't suffering."

Read more: http://www.insidebayarea.com/news/ci_26644996/jahi-mcmath-family-seeks-have-brain-death-ruling

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What a bunch of professional trolls.

[elias7]

1. What do you mean professional trolls?

The lawyer? The pediatric neurologists? The media? The Terry Schiavo life and hope network?

There is no evidence yet reported in any news source that supports the lawyer's contention, so I wouldn't be buying this whole thing hook, line and sinker just yet. But flame away if you must.

[Scairp]

2. Wow

This situation is so disturbing. And a dead brain does not "regain brain activity". This family is just weird, keeping that girl's heart beating with machines so they can pretend she is alive. I don't even feel sorry for them anymore. This shyster is right about one thing though, the girl isn't suffering because she is dead.

[cosmicone]

3. It is all about money for the family and the lawyer

If they had accepted that Jahi died, they would have received maybe $500K in settlement.

If they somehow keep her alive, they stand to gain over $20 million for the cost of caring for her through her life expectancy.

The family and the lawyer should be jailed for fraud.

[LisaL]

6. There is 250 k limit on someone who is dead.

So it would be 250 k maximum.
There is no limit on someone who is alive but needs constant care.

[cosmicone]

9. The 250K limit is only on pain and suffering

so when someone dies, they get about $500K total

[JI7]

4. can something be done with the lawyers on this case ?

[Doctor_J]

26. Probably, but I don't know where one can buy a guillotine these days

[jtuck004]

5. 3 days later the lawyer reports finding the door rolled aside, and the room empty...

Dude, Dolan, the activity you saw was sunspots. Or earth tremors. It wasn't this person who you, perhaps, think is going to be the savior of your bank account.

[davidpdx]

7. It is lawyers like Dolan that give his profession a bad name

I suppose there are a few bad apples in every profession, but THAT one *whistles* takes the cake.

I can only think of one other lawyer in his "class" (though I'm sure there are more):

[Drayden]

8. The comments in this thread are sickening

These parents have been put through hell with their daughter and it's all one big joke, huh? Really, they are keeping their child alive because their money grubbing? Do you all assume this because they happen to be black? Of course black people couldn't possibly be keeping their child alive because they love her, right? Or because maybe, just maybe, they have a little more insight into their daughter's condition than some random people on DU? This child has been kept alive for 10 months since she was declared brain dead. If she were truly brain dead and her body was "rotting" like so many claimed, even machines wouldn't have been capable of keeping her alive for such a long period of time. Pray you never find yourselves in their shoes, forced into making horrible decisions while the world mocks you and laughs.

[cosmicone]

10. She is already D-E-A-D

She cannot be kept "A-L-I-V-E"

Six separate doctors have pronounced her dead due to a lack of brain activity. As in nada, nyet, zilch, zippo. The Alameda county coroner has issued a DEATH CERTIFICATE.

Machines can keep a corpse alive forever or at least until the heart stops beating.

[Drayden]

11. No, machines can not keep a corpse alive forever

In fact, a quick google peek found the longest time mentioned as 168 days. Jahi has almost doubled that. Where are all the people who claimed her body was rotting away now? Obviously that hasn't happened.

[cosmicone]

12. You, Sir, lack medical knowledge.

A brain dead person whose other organs are functioning can be kept alive on machines, IV and feeding tube FOREVER.

I didn't get my board certification by studying google - thank heavens.

[secondwind]

15. I agree with you

[Drayden]

31. First of all, I am a ma'm, not a sir

Second of all, I can understand you disagreeing with her mother's decision, even pretending you know exactly what you would do if you found yourself in her mother's position. It is the vilification and slander stating her mother is in this only for the money that is sickening. You have no idea what this woman is going through. From what I read, she has spent the past 10 months by her daughter's side, almost all the time. She is devoted to her child and blames herself for allowing the surgery after the child expressed fear and a premonition of death.

Jahi was presumably brain dead as of Dec 9, 2013. On Dec 10, 2013, one of my best friends lost her beautiful 17 yr old daughter due to a horrific accident. Her child was declared dead after numerous attempts to restart the heart failed. My friend would give anything, absolutely anything to hold her daughter again, to hear her daughter's heart beat again, to brush her daughter's hair, hold her hand, sleep beside her daughter, paint her nails and just be with her.
Jahi's mom can still do these things. Had she placed her daughter in the ground last Dec she would not be able to do these things. And would also have to live with the knowledge her signature and authorization stopped her daughter's beating heart. It is love and grief and desperate hope of and belief in the possibility of a miracle leading Jahi's mother to make the decisions she has, not greed. Maybe you have never loved anyone like that, to where the thought of letting them go forever is so unbearable you will take them anyway you can. I do wonder if people would feel different if Jahi was a skinny little blonde child, with a rich movie star looking mother. This mother has had scorn heaped on her and slander thrown at her practically from the moment this all began.

[cosmicone]

35. You are bringing emotion into logic

No one is minimizing the fact that the family suffered a loss.

However, just because one feels a loss doesn't entitle them to go against medical advice and do something bizarre that normal people would not do. Instead of accepting the loss and grieving, these people are going to inordinate lengths to create an illusion with the help of the Terry Schiavo foundation.

You can, logically, only conclude one of two things -- 1. Collectively insane or 2. crooks looking for a big payday. Race has nothing to do with it. Blacks/Whites/Browns/Reds and Yellows are all capable of going collectively insane or being crooks.

What is more telling is that the lawyer is spending hours and hours on this case, losing every time and it means he is not satisfied to get 33% of $500K but wants 33% of $20 million and he is enticing the family to continue the theater.

No doctor has certified that Jahi has improved. Not a one.

[Drayden]

36. Of course I am bringing emotion into it

Duh. Her mother's emotion is what is the driving force behind her decisions.
She didn't want to be the good little grieving parent that yanked her daughter's plug and moved on with her life. She loves her daughter so much she can't let her go and chooses to believe in the possibility of a miracle. That should have been your number 3. Grief is private and individual there is no "normal".

[theHandpuppet]

40. At some point letting go is the unselfish thing to do.

And that's what I call love -- unselfish love.

[Drayden]

46. That is what YOU call love

And like I said below, when you have a brain dead child you will be free to make those decisions. Jahi's mother has a different opinion on what constitutes love. She wants to give her daughter any chance, no matter how remote, to heal. And she believes in miracles. And since she is Jahi's mother and you aren't, she gets to make the decisions for her child. Right or wrong, it is her choice. This doesn't make her a money grabber or a bad person. She is just a mother who loves her child and believes her child has a possibility of healing, no matter how small or how impossible it seems to others and isn't ready to let her daughter go. Disagreeing with her is fine. Demonizing her and dehumanizing her daughter by inaccurately calling her a corpse is not.

[secondwind]

13. who is paying the bills for this? it is accepted medical practice to "pull the plug" on

a person with zero brain activity.

Like the article says, if she comes back, it would be nothing short of a miracle... I think you are mistaken about her body being "dead"...there are machines that are keeping her body functioning.

[theHandpuppet]

16. Keeping a child's corpse going by hooking her up to machines...

... isn't what I would call love. I don't know why you even brought race into this.

[bigworld]

17. Wait, who brought race into this?

(This was directed at Drayden, not you, Handpuppet)

[Feral Child]

19. Why don't you just pray for her resurrection?

and save your outrage for some unrealistic, right-wing Fundy web forum that traffics in Miracles. I'd suggest

http://www.city-data.com/forum/christianity/1033507-my-story-how-jesus-saved-me.html as a good place to start.


You'll have to come up with something a bit more inventive, a bit less ridiculous, than accusing us of racism.

[Sunlei]

21. I agree with you. It's not worth the time to argue with the general publics' death panel.

That's why this family has to use the court system. Thank the stars they're a strong family!

Many people have no family to fight for them, no 'everything is covered insurance' and have to face the death panel alone. They always lose.

[get the red out]

29. Terry Shiavo was white

Just thought I would mention that. I don't see people's opinions on the subject as racist.

[ninjanurse]

18. Publicity-seeking attorney

I don't think the family of the unfortunate girl is getting anything out of this but misery. However, the attorney is getting attention from the 'pro-life' crowd, there are other hangers on who are advancing their careers at the expense of the truth. Yes, it will cost millions more to keep Jahi's body alive, but all that money goes to medical care, not into anyone's bank account.

[Sunlei]

20. If the new MRIs by experts show brain activity, then the first 'experts' made a medical error.

[IdaBriggs]

22. Always trust the medical opinion of folks who "killed" a child undergoing tonsillectomy.

Or...not.

I am not privy to the specifics of the situation other than what I've read. Much like abortion rights, I prefer to leave such difficult decisions in the hands of the people involved.

If she is truly "dead" then there is no suffering except for those who love her, so I am choosing to stay neutral. If she is "not dead" then there is hope -- and I personally believe in miracles.

Miracles are science unexplained. Miracles are the way we learn that we still don't know everything. Miracles challenge our assumptions about the way the universe works.

If everyone is telling the truth - if she was "brain dead" and now is "NOT brain dead" -- well, the world always deserves a good shaking up of assumptions on how it works. Science fiction has long posited "freezing people" either for travel or until their medical issues can be resolved; the "fiction" aspect has been largely due to our lack of understanding of brain activity...how to turn it "off" and "on" at will, so to speak. If true, an interesting breakthrough with repercussions in many, many places....

If people are lying, either intentionally or through omission or due to denial, then that must be dealt with appropriately -- if done in error through grief, with compassion; if due to greed or infamy, then with justice.

And if "they" made a mistake, then kudos to the family for fighting for their child.

Best wishes to all involved.

[LisaL]

23. She was examined by experts from another hospital.

This child is worse off than Terry Schiavo.
Schiavo could breath on her own. Jahi can not. She is attached to a ventilator. She just lays there, basically.
Even assuming for a second there is some sort of activity still remaining in her brain, what kind of "life" would that be?

[IdaBriggs]

24. It will be interesting to read the reports released Friday, won't it?

We don't know what has happened in the year since.

As I said, I remain neutral on how this topic -- these are difficult personal decisions, and I am grateful I am not in the situation.

If she is just "laying there", and if she truly has no brain function, as I said the only suffering is experienced by her family.

As for the experts, well, as I said -- I can understand the lack of trust after a certain point, and the community is a small one. Mistakes happen, and so do miracles (as defined by me above).

Good luck to all involved.

[Doctor_J]

25. Or the second 'experts' made a medical error

This story is preposterous. The girl is dead. This attorney is the lowest of the low.

[Sunlei]

27. because Doctors never make errors?

[LisaL]

28. I would like to see who these experts are.

[catrose]

30. If I were the judge

I'd have her examined by court-appointed doctors. If they agree with the lawyer's experts, then there's something to discuss, like when they can start disconnecting her from the machines. Karen Ann Quinlan "lived" for 10 years after being disconnected from her ventilator, though the cases are not the same.

Blessings on the family--how horrible this whole experience has been for them. No parent should be put in this position.

[angrychair]

32. amazing

I can't believe we're still having this discussion. This poor child is no longer alive. Not my opinion. Not one person's opinion. Not one hospital' s opinion. It is the determined finding of several doctors. Three hospitals. The county cornor has declared her dead.

Not sure where there is room for debate. Yes, I am sure you can find a doctor(s) to take up the case that she has brain activity just like you are free to secure Orly Taitz as your legal counsel.

In all seriousness, this is where science can step on its own feet. Science can make a case for something being on and off, 1 and 0, at the same time. While both are right, doesn't necessarily apply to people. My heart breaks for the hole in this family's life. This continued contrarian attitude helps no one.

[bpj62]

33. Possible Shakedown by the Attorney

If this girl has regained brain function then simply remove the breathing tube and let mother nature take its natural course. She will either start breathing because her cerebral cortex is sending signals to her lungs or she will not breathe because she is brain dead and her organs will shut down from lack of oxygen. As a parent I feel for her parents but what is the end game here and who is advising the parents. This will end up in a court room and it will not end well for the parents or Jahi McMath.

[yellowcanine]

34. Need an opinion from Bill Frist on this.

He is the expert of video analysis of comotose patients. Why hasn't he been consulted yet?

[blkmusclmachine]

37. The kid will never walk, talk, or interact with anybody ever again. But if the family wants to keep

that corpse on oxygen forever, well, that's their waste of money to do with as they like. Crazy.

[Drayden]

38. You are wrong

You can't dig up a corpse or pull a stiff off ice, connect them to a vent and have their heart start beating or their other organ systems start to function. It isn't possible. Jahi may well meet the clinical definition of brain death as we understand it at the monent. But her body is not a corpse and is very much alive and has been alive for 10 months. Her heart beats and pumps blood, her liver detoxes her body, her digestive system processes tube feelings, he kidneys make urine her bladder expels and she has started her period and entered puberty. A corpse can not do those things, whether it is hooked to a vent or not. The part of her brain that made her cognizant and that made her Jahi could be destroyed forever, but her body is alive. A true corpse would have rotted in 10 months, even a vent couldn't keep it alive.

[theHandpuppet]

39. You call keeping organs alive for a dead brain "living"?

Without feeding tubes and IVs and ventilators even those organs couldn't be sustained. The brain is dead. You might call that living but I sure don't.

[uppityperson]

41. But the body is alive, not a corpse and to call it such is really rude and uncaring.

There is a difference between a body being alive and a person "living". Same as when they keep a body alive for someone waiting an organ transplant. It is not a "corpse" until all functions cease.

[Drayden]

43. Well,

When you have a child declared brain dead then your opinion will matter and you can make the decision to unplug him or her. You don't have that choice in Jahi's case, her mother and the hospital that chose to treat her gets to make those decisions. Calling her a corpse is shock language, you know, like emotional. Not fact. Her body lives.

[theHandpuppet]

44. I guess my opinion counts about as much as yours, then.

My opinion still stands-- her body is being kept alive by artificial means and her brain is dead. I don't call that living.

[GGJohn]

45. You're right,

your opinion counts just as much as hers, and, you're right again, a body kept alive when the brain is dead isn't living, it's just sustaining the organs.

[Drayden]

47. Except I don't believe my opinion has any place in this case

And I'm not slandering the mother and accusing her of money grubbing off her daughter. You don't call it living. Jahi's mother does, and as Jahi's mother, she gets to call the shots.

[theHandpuppet]

48. But you obviously don't mind slandering everyone here

"Do you all assume this because they happen to be black? Of course black people couldn't possibly be keeping their child alive because they love her, right?"

We won't be holding our collective breath waiting for an apology.

And to be accurate, I never accused Jahl's mother of money grubbing. Take it up with the appropriate poster. You won't get anywhere with me.

[Drayden]

49. I couldn't care less about getting anywhere with you

You are entitled to your opinions and it isn't my goal to change what you believe.
I absolutely think the race and the economic situation of the family has contributed to the hate, scorn, blame, and allegations against her mother. Like it is impossible to believe a black mother loves her child so much she can't bear to let her go and that financial gain has nothing to do with her decisions.

[uppityperson]

42. I have stayed out of this but want to let you know that not everyone here is so rude to call her a

corpse. Her body is alive and calling her a corpse is really rude and unfeeling and I apologize for you having to be dealing with that.