Life on the Line.

[Saturnine Pariah]

A unfortunate turn of events has left a family in Oakland, California grieving and now battling to save their teenage daughter.

Time is running out for the family of a brain dead California teenager as it scrambles to find a facility to take her before the court order keeping her on life support expires at 5 p.m. PT today.
Jahi McMath, 13, was declared brain dead following a surgery to remove her tonsils and adenoids on Dec. 9.
An Oakland judge ruled last week that the hospital could remove Jahi from life support only after the family had time to appeal or make other arraignments.Despite multiple doctors agreeing that Jahi is brain dead, her family has battled the Children's Hospital Oakland to keep her on life support.


Those arrangements however would involve having to transport Jahi to a facility all the way in New York. A serious if not tedious undertaking considering that the only powers keeping Jahi alive are machines.

The family's last hope may rest with a New York facility, Chris Dolan, an attorney for Jahi's family, told The Associated Press on Sunday.
Dolan declined to name the New York facility and could not be immediately reached for comment today.
Doug Straus, an attorney for Children's Hospital Oakland, said the hospital had not been contacted by any facilities seeking to make arrangements for transferring Jahi, according to a statement posted on its website Sunday afternoon.


Despite the physical and sheer geographic issues in transporting Jahi, there are of course the legal troubles.

In a letter to Dolan, Straus said the hospital "will allow a lawful transfer of Jahi's body in its current state to another location if the family can arrange such a transfer and Children's can legally do so."
But the letter questioned whether this would be legally possible, in part because the coroner would need to sign off on moving Jahi and the family would need proper transportation.
Jahi's mother, Latasha Nailah Winkfield, has vowed not to give up the fight.
An online fundraiser she started last week has gathered more than $22,000 in donations to help cover Jahi's medical and transportation costs, if only the family can find a facility to take her.
"We still have a chance at one more facility," she wrote, "so let us all pray."

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NEWCOMB, ALYSSA, and GILLIAN MOHNEY. "Jahi McMath: Life Support Cutoff Looms for Brain Dead California Teenager." Yahoo. Good Morning America., 30 Dec. 2013. Web. 31 Dec. 2013.

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[Buddha12]

She has been found brain dead by many doctors that examined her so the money and resources that are being given to her could be given to others that are still alive and need that care.

 

[Saturnine Pariah]

She has been found brain dead by many doctors that examined her so the money and resources that are being given to her could be given to others that are still alive and need that care.

True. It is unfortunate but once a patient is brain dead and in a vegetative state it's just not worth keeping them alive.

 

[Bells]

I can't say that I understand the parents grief, because I am fortunate enough to have never had to contemplate such a decision with my kids.

She believes her daughter will wake up and is still there, somehow. I guess she thinks she is buying her daughter some time? And she just can't let her go.

But there will come a time where she will have to make that decision and that decision should be made for her daughter's welfare. Would her daughter have wanted to remain on life support, brain dead with no hope of recovery? Her daughter has died. What is left behind on life support is an empty shell. What made her daughter her daughter, is no longer there and will never return. She needs to say goodbye and let her go. She isn't keeping her alive for her daughter's sake, but for her own. Which is tragic. No parent should ever have to make this kind of decision for their child, in an ideal world, things like this would never happen. But we don't live in an ideal world and she needs to make that decision and she should do it with her daughter in mind and not her own desire to not lose her daughter.

 

[joepistole]

Well she is not doing her daughter any favors by keeping her body hooked up to machines and tubes. At some point, decubitus ulcers will set in, and eventually her body will die a slow agonizing pitiful death. The whole affair is tragic. Unfortunately, there is no good ending.

I think the best they can do and should do is to pull the plug and donate her organs. It’s the right thing to do for their daughter. It is the right thing to do for other children. And it is the right thing to do for the family. Now getting the family to see that is probably not going to happen. In donating her organs, they can know that their daughter's death was not in vain, and that some good could result from this very tragic and sad situation. It would give me some comfort if it were a member of my family.

There is no life on the line, there are lives on the line. Jahi is already gone. The lives of children who will be denied care or denied organs as a result of this family's desire to keep her body alive are on the line. And Jahi is being denied a meaningful, clean and merciful death. I think the family is being more than a little selfish here.

 

[Saturnine Pariah]

There is no life on the line, there are lives on the line. Jahi is already gone. The lives of children who will be denied care or denied organs as a result of this family's desire to keep her body alive are on the line. And Jahi is being denied a meaningful, clean and merciful death. I think the family is being more than a little selfish here.

Selfish yes, however we must remember that for that family this once blank shell of a body was their baby girl, a person that they raised and watch grow before their eyes over thirteen years. The grief and emotional turmoil of losing someone that close can override any human's sense of logical judgement or critical thinking (unless you are a sociopath). As forum of non affiliated people over-viewing the scenario we don't have any emotional attachment that cloud our minds or our opinions/decisions on this delicate situation. Our views and what we vote on occurs without much personal repercussions . Personally i would take her off life support, the Jahi they knew and loved is gone forever, all they can do now is grieve and remember the time they did have with her and seek console.

 

[joepistole]

Selfish yes, however we must remember that for that family this once blank shell of a body was their baby girl, a person that they raised and watch grow before their eyes over thirteen years. The grief and emotional turmoil of losing someone that close can override any human's sense of logical judgement or critical thinking (unless you are a sociopath). As forum of non affiliated people over-viewing the scenario we don't have any emotional attachment that cloud our minds or our opinions/decisions on this delicate situation. Our views and what we vote on occurs without much personal repercussions . Personally i would take her off life support, the Jahi they knew and loved is gone forever, all they can do now is grieve and remember the time they did have with her and seek console.

I don’t think anyone is forgetting the pain and suffering this family is going through. I have personally been there too many times. For days, for months, and for years, you see someone in a crowd or you hear something and for an instant you think maybe they didn’t die, maybe they are still alive. But then reality sets in again. This isn’t easy, but even in profound grief, you can be reasonable. It happens thousands of times every day. Experiencing profound grief doesn’t mean you have to be and act irrationally and irresponsibly or selfishly or cannot think critically. And the thousands of families who in similar situations every year do decide to pull the plug on their loved ones when they become brain dead and then donate their organs to others are not psychopaths. They are good caring and responsible people.

 

[Saturnine Pariah]

Very true.

 

[sifreak21]

Yes but since multiple doctors have said she us brain dead if she were to wake up she could do nothing for herself not hear see act nothing. ATM as heartless as it sounds she's just wasting resources.. if parents want her on life support the should pay out of pocket and buy all the equipment. If the insurance company said that I think we all know the decision