Teenage Girl Caught at the Center of a Medical and Religious Debate Over Brain Death Dies

[Voltaire2]

A girl at the center of the medical and religious debate over brain death has died after surgery in New Jersey, her mother said Thursday.

Nailah Winkfield said doctors declared her daughter Jahi McMath dead on June 22 from excessive bleeding and liver failure after an operation to treat an intestinal issue.

McMath was declared dead in December 2013 when she was 13 after suffering irreversible brain damage during routine surgery in California to remove her tonsils and a coroner signed a death certificate. Several specialists concurred after neurological tests.

Winkfield refused to accept the conclusion. She said her Christian beliefs compelled her to fight for continued care for her daughter, who she said showed signs of life through toe wriggles and finger movements.

Headline is misleading. the unfortunate Jahi McMath continued to be dead for more than four years until the family finally accepted reality last week. The other interesting aspect of this case is the civil law suit which the family has launched to cover the expenses of keeping their brain dead daughter breathing for nearly five years. Now that she is both brain and body dead, the suit will have to establish that she was undead while in New Jersey.

[Lithos]

1. Same girl who ignored post op instructions?

And encouraged to do so by her parents and family?

[Voltaire2]

2. No she had a surgical misfortune and died in surgery.

The family refused to accept that she was dead, and with support from various religious organizations fought first to force the state of California to resurrect her, and then transported her to New Jersey, which appears to be the only state that allows this nonsense.

[Lithos]

6. Thx

N/t

[Arkansas Granny]

3. I hope this family can finally find peace and begin to heal.

As hard as it is to lose a child, I can't imagine the pain of a prolonged loss like this has been.

It's easy to say what should have been done or what you would have done until you've had to face that decision yourself.

[Voltaire2]

5. Of course it is a terrible situation.

But clearly this family was exploited by religious extremists. At huge expense their brain dead daughter was kept breathing, for nearly five years. The outcome was inevitable. There was no possibility of recovery. There was nothing left of the consciousness entity that was their daughter to revive. That is why almost all states have adopted brain death as the standard.

[Major Nikon]

8. Perhaps, but emotion and religious attachments to the metaphysical make for poor public policy

At the end of the day someone has to pay for keeping a dead person animated for 5 years. So my rational side says those resources are probably better allocated to those who are actually alive.

[dawg day]

4. I remember a priest telling my uncle-

when his wife suffered brain death after an accident--
"Her soul has gone to be with God. We must let her body go too."

Keeping a body alive is not at all a religious requirement. In fact, it can be seen as interfering with the will of God. I absolutely understand the deep desire of a family to hope against hope that their child is still with them... but that's human, not divine.

[Lordquinton]

7. absolutely horrifying

I don't even want to think of what was going on that whole time.