Jahi McMath, 13, suffered complications after a tonsillectomy. / Family photo via AP 
Reiterating an earlier ruling, a California judge Tuesday ordered that a teen who was left brain dead after having her tonsils removed must be kept on life support until Dec. 30.
The ruling by Alameda County Judge Evelio Grillo followed testimony from a Stanford University neurologist that 13-year-old Jahi McMath met all medical criteria for brain death, the second such conclusion since she hemorrhaged and had a heart attack after Dec. 9 surgery at Children's Hospital of Oakland. Doctors declared her brain dead Dec. 12.
Grillo said that unless a higher court intervenes, the hospital must keep Jahi mechanically alive only until 5 p.m. Dec. 30, a ruling he first issued Monday. Her family is fighting to keep her alive, and is seeking to have another doctor evaluate her.
'It's wrong for someone who made mistakes on your child to just call the coroner รข?¦ and not respect the family's feeling or rights,' Sandra Chatman, Jahi's grandmother and a registered nurse, said Monday outside the courtroom.
'I know Jahi suffered, and it tears me up.'
On Monday, Grillo decided that Jahi would be examined by Dr. Paul Graham Fisher, the chief of child neurology at Stanford University School of Medicine. He concurred with a previous assessment that she was legally and medically brain dead.
The family's attorney also asked Grillo to allow a third evaluation by Paul Byrne, a pediatric professor at the University of Toledo. The hospital's attorney objected to Byrne, saying he is not a pediatric neurologist.
Byrne is the co-editor of the 2001 book Beyond Brain Death, which presents a variety of arguments against using brain-based criteria for declaring a person dead.
In an open letter over the weekend, Jahi's mother, Nailah Winkfield, pleaded for prayers and time to keep her daughter on a ventilator.
'Despite what they say, she is alive. I can touch her, she is warm. She responds to my touch,' Winkfield wrote. 'Given time I know (God) will spark her brain awake.'
The hospital said in a statement that although it sympathizes with Winkfield's wishes, 'it would be unfair to give false hope that Jahi will come back to life.'
Contributing: Associated Press
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Posted by Unknown on Tuesday, December 24, 2013 - Rating: 4.5
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