Emily Maher, Staff Editor
A thirteen year old girl from California was declared legally brain dead after an operation to have her tonsils removed in early December sparking a debate between the hospital and her family whether to continue life support.
The procedure was to cure her sleep apnea problems. Jahi McMath suffered complications and went into cardiac arrest at the Children's Hospital in Oakland. After the young girl was acknowledged as brain dead, the family and the hospital disagreed over whether to disconnect her from a ventilator.
The issue had become so extreme that it ended up in Alameda Superior Court. In court documents, the hospital upheld that there's no doubt that McMath is brain-dead, describing the illness as “irreversible”.
“We didn't want her to be removed from life support but the decision is out of our hands because it's been declared a legal death,” Omari Sealey, McMath's uncle, said. At least five different facilities that originally offered to care for Jahi fell through. Many hospitals feel that Jahi, is dead and not worth the expenses.
“I feel that it is unfair for the hospital to disconnect an innocent girl. It was the hospitals fault, and they should be held responsible,” NHS senior Josh Kraft said.
Although many hospitals have not supported the McMath family, other people across the country have. In ten days the family has raised more than $50,000, on GoFundMe.com to move her home. Around 1,500 people have donated money to this fund.
“We want to thank everyone that supported us, everyone that stood in our corner, everyone that prayed for us, everyone that helped donate to make this possible. Without you guys, none of this would be possible," said Sealey.
"Is the family doing the right thing? Do the parents have the power to make such a large decision? “It is so easy to say when it is not your child, I could tell you that if I was those parents and it’s been a month now, the doctors are all telling me that my child is brain dead, I would donate any organs that other child needed while she was still alive,” secretary Debi Modzelewski said. “But as a mother I could not tell you exactly what I would do,”
At this point in time the family has begun to lose some hope. "No amount of prayer, no amount of hope, no amount of any type of medical procedure will bring her back," Children's Hospital Oakland spokesman Sam Singer said last month. "The medical situation here in this case is that Jahi McMath died several weeks ago."
Photo credit to www.sfgate.com.
