Jahi McMath, a 13-year-old girl on a
ventilator who was declared brain dead by California doctors after tonsil
surgery, was released from a hospital to her mother Sunday night and moved to a
facility willing to continue her care.
"We're very relieved that she
got safely to where she needed to be, because we were all very afraid given the
fragile condition as she wasted away at Children's that she might not make
it," attorney Chris Dolan told reporters Monday.
The move to an undisclosed location
ends one chapter of a weekslong struggle between Children's Hospital & Research
Center Oakland, which sought to remove Jahi from the ventilator after it and a
judge concluded she was brain dead, and her relatives, who fought in court to
keep her on life support and contended she showed signs of life.
The hospital released Jahi on Sunday
to the Alameda County coroner, who then released her to her mother's custody,
said David Durand, the hospital's chief of pediatrics. The hospital had
previously said it needed the coroner's consent for the transfer because Jahi
was legally dead.
Jahi -- who was declared brain dead
December 12 after post-surgery complications that her family says included
severe bleeding and cardiac arrest -- was moved from the hospital Sunday
accompanied by a critical care team. She was attached to a ventilator, but with
no feeding tube in place.
On Monday, Dolan said Jahi was being
given antibiotics to fight infections and nutritional support.
"They're giving her everything
that a person who would have a chance to live would be getting," he said.
He declined to provide details about
the type of facility, citing privacy and security concerns.
"She's where she's going to be
for a while," he said. "She needs to be medically stabilized,
medically treated."
Although a New York facility has
said it's ready to care for Jahi, Dolan told reporters Sunday night that her
destination won't be announced.
"We've had people make threats
from around the country. It's sad that people act that way," Dolan said.
"So for Jahi's safety and those around her, we will not be saying where
she went or where she is."
But New Beginnings Community Center
in Medford, New York, said it is an option.
"At this time we're named as
the potential facility that Jahi and her family will be coming to, but we will
know more details in a couple of hours, and we'll certainly be happy to let you
know as we know," said Allyson Scerri, founder of New Beginnings, on
Sunday.
On its website, the facility bills
itself as an outpatient rehabilitation center for patients with traumatic brain
injuries and says it plans to open a long-term care facility. According to her online biography posted on the facility's
website, Scerri worked as a hair stylist for 25 years and founded the facility
after her father sustained a traumatic brain injury in a motorcycle accident.
"We are aware of Jahi McMath's
dire situation, and we are willing to open our outpatient facility to provide
24-hour care as an inpatient, long-term facility for Jahi with the required and
appropriate medical staff that she depends upon," Scerri said in a letter
included in court documents last week.
The surgery
Jahi's case drew national attention
and fueled debate as a fierce court battle unfolded between devastated family
members fighting to keep her on a ventilator and doctors arguing she'd already
died.
Family members say the eighth-grader
was alert and talking after doctors removed her tonsils, adenoids and extra
sinus tissue in a surgery at the Oakland hospital on December 9.
Doctors had recommended the surgery
to treat pediatric obstructive sleep apnea, a condition which made her stop
breathing in her sleep and caused other medical problems.
Before the surgery, Jahi said she
was worried that she would never wake up, according to her uncle. She seemed
fine after the surgery, but asked for a Popsicle because her throat hurt.
Not long afterward, something went
terribly wrong. In an intensive care unit, the girl began bleeding profusely,
the family said.
According to family members, Jahi
went into cardiac arrest. Days later, she was declared brain dead.
Hospital officials have said privacy
laws prevent them from discussing details of the case.
The court battle and the medical
debate
The family and the hospital
disagreed over whether to disconnect her from a ventilator, and the issue wound
up in Alameda Superior Court.
In court documents and public comments,
the hospital maintained that there's no doubt that McMath is brain dead,
describing the condition as irreversible.
"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."
A judge on December 23 appointed Dr.
Paul Fisher, chief of pediatric neurology at Stanford Children's Hospital, to
evaluate Jahi.
Fisher concluded the next day that
she met the criteria for brain death. According to a court filing, Fisher found
that the girl's pupils were fully dilated and unresponsive to light and that
she did not respond to a variety of intense stimuli.
His report also says Jahi showed no
sign of breathing on her own when a ventilator was removed: "Patient
failed apnea test." The report says her heart was beating only because of
the mechanical ventilator.
In addition, an imaging test showed
no blood flow to Jahi's brain, while another showed no sign of electrical
activity.
Fisher's conclusion: "Overall,
unfortunate circumstances in 13-year-old with known, irreversible brain injury
and now complete absence of cerebral function and complete absence of brainstem
function, child meets all criteria for brain death, by professional societies
and state of California."
After seeing Fisher's report,
Alameda Superior Court Judge Evelio Grillo concluded on December 24 that Jahi
was brain dead. But Grillo twice ruled that the hospital had to hold off on
disconnecting Jahi from life support, ultimately giving the family and the
facility until January 7 to come to a resolution.
The Alameda County coroner issued a
death certificate for Jahi on Friday, listing December 12 as the date of death.
The certificate still needed to be accepted by the health department to become
official.
Medical ethicists, meanwhile, say
the high-profile case fuels a misperception: that "brain death" is
somehow not as final as cardiac death, even
though, by definition, it is. The case is "giving the
impression that dead people can come back to life," Arthur Caplan,
director of the Division of Medical Ethics at NYU Langone Medical Center, told
CNN last month.
Family members say they've seen
reason for hope
Jahi's family members maintain that
they're hoping for a miracle and want her care to continue elsewhere.
Her mother told CNN last month that
she'd seen improvements, including indications from a hospital monitor that she
said suggest her daughter was trying to breathe on her own.
The girl's uncle, Omari Sealey, told
reporters last week that Jahi moves when her mother speaks and touches her.
Sealey also said that a pediatrician has seen Jahi and has sworn she is not
dead.
When asked about the girl's possible
movement, Singer, the hospital spokesman, said he would not comment directly on
any claims the family makes, citing privacy laws. However, Singer said it is
"quite common" for the muscles of brain dead patients to move,
stressing it's "not a sign of life."
So far the family has raised more
than $50,000 on GoFundMe.com to move her. According to the site, more than 1,300 people
have donated money in 10 days.
"We're very grateful, very
proud," said Sealey, Jahi's uncle. "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."
Scerri of New Beginnings told CNN on
Sunday that the girl just needs to be given a chance to recover.
"Her brain needs time to heal.
It's a new injury," Scerri said. "We believe in life after injury.
All of us here at New Beginnings have firsthand experience because we have a
loved one that was in the same situation as Jahi."
Dolan said moving Jahi to a new care
facility is critical to her recovery.
"We're very pleased to announce
that Jahi McMath has been taken from Children's Hospital and brought to a place
where they will use her name instead of calling her a body, and where she can
get to the starting line instead of where Children's has left her the past four
weeks almost, at the finish line."
In releasing Jahi, the hospital
said: "Our hearts go out to the family as they grieve for this sad
situation and we wish them closure and peace."
Deuteronomy 32:39 See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no
god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is
there any that can deliver out of my hand.
Matthew 10:29 Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father
John 12:1 Then Jesus six days before the passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead.
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