Jahi McMath placed in mother’s custody to be transferred out of Children’s Hospital Oakland
It has been almost a month since 13-year-old Oakland teen, Jahi McMath, was declared brain-dead by doctors at the Children’s Hospital in Oakland. The teen’s family has since been fighting to keep her on life support, despite doctors and judges strong beliefs that she should be taken off.
Having originally been given until December 30 to submit an appeal to keep McMath on life support, a county judge granted the family an extension after a request from the family’s attorney. The court order to keep McMath on life support was ultimately extended until 5 P.M. on January 7.
As of last night, Dr. David Durand, chief of pediatrics at Children’s Hospital, released a statement confirming that the teen had been released to her mother, Nailah Winkfield, in correspondence with the court order.
According to Fox News, McMath was initially released to the Alameda County Coroner before being placed in her mother’s custody at approximately 8 P.M. EST Sunday.
Christopher Dolan, attorney for the McMath family, gave a statement to the Associated Press revealing that McMath had departed the hospital in a personal ambulance, and though she was attached to her ventilator, she did not, however, have a feeding tube.
With the family’s plans to transfer McMath to a 24-hour care clinic in New York, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Evelio Grillo stated that in accordance with Children’s Hospital Oakland, the teen could be transferred to another facility and her mother will be the one held accountable should McMath go into cardiac arrest.
A death certificate was issued out on Friday, but because there has been no cause of death, the document is currently incomplete.
“They may have issued one, but we don’t have it. We don’t think she’s dead,” said Dolan.
Although it has not yet been specified which facility McMath will be taken to, Dolan noted that she will be cared for, respected and loved, and that she will be receiving a feeding tube before officially being transferred.
McMath’s uncle, Omari Sealey, sent out a Facebook update thanking those who have supported their family during this trying time.
“Thank you to everyone who prayed for us & stood in our corner, we love you all!!!”
– Antionette Latrese (@_ALatrese)
3 Comments
One has to wonder who will fund Jahi’s ongoing life support and at what cost and what will happen in 3 months time when the family have yet to see Jahi come back to life? Will they continue their plight, ask for more donations and for how long will those donations continue to come and how does one in the end exactly measure the merits of one’s faith in the face of logic and absurdity……?
http://scallywagandvagabond.com/2014/01/body-of-jahi-mcmath-released-to-mother-search-for-facility-underway/
There are a few cases in the literature over the last several decades of supposed brain death reversal – mainly in infants and fetuses, probably due to somewhat of a neurogenic niche still being active post partum – none ever had positive long term outcome, but the papers do exist in PubMed if you look for them – and they are hotly contested amongst thought leaders – And do keep in mind, brain death diagnosis does NOT constitute zero cerebral activity as is commonly mentioned in the press – it is “no cerebral activity greater than 2 micro-volts” – most thought leaders in the space acknowledge residual “nests” of neuronal activity and residual blood flow do indeed exist – just not enough to support an “integrated whole person” – here is one such reference – http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19818943 – Since 1968 and the Harvard Ad Hoc Committee on Brain Death, the definition of death has remained static, in spite of 1) the major thought leaders in the space acknowledging that brain death is a process, not an event, and 2) the continued development of new technologies, including those of regenerative medicine – and on top of that, even in the year 2014 we really have no widely accepted idea on how memories are truly stored in the brain, and how much of the brain can be destroyed while maintaining identity – Ira S Pastor, CEO, Bioquark Inc. – pastor@bioquark.com – http://www.bioquark.com