I’m not sure if the link will work, but I will put it here anyway.
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF01400587#page-1
Looking at the figures in the article, it appears that the longest they have kept a corpse somewhat functional after death is about 52 days.
This group, led by T. Yoshioka of Osaka University Medical School, Japan, apparently has done a number of studies in brain dead people.
In any case, I doubt that the heart will continue to beat in this corpse for much longer. Almost certainly, whatever facility they moved her to will not have advanced life-support equipment. The length of time this corpse has been kept ventilated is already beyond the average seen in Yoshioka’s studies (23.1 +/- 19.1 days) (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3714004).
The judge who has allowed this travesty to continue long past the girl’s death is reprehensible. I have no words to describe the lawyer Dolan, who must be aware of the facts yet continues to lead the family on.
I think there will be severe legal ramifications in this case. Hospitals do not usually release corpses except for transport to medical examiners or funeral homes.
From your first linked article:
“...autopsy revealed the fact that the brain tissue including the hypothalamus became extensively necrotic after the sixth day of brain death...”
For those of you from Rio Linda, “necrotic” means dead tissue. Necrotic brain tissue is essentially absorbed by the body if that body is kept artificially “alive”. In brain death, the ENTIRE brain (including the brain stem) becomes necrotic and is subsequently absorbed.
This “living” corpse is NOT EVER coming back to life. She’s been dead since December 12 despite the fact that her bodily “shell” has been kept viable. It will become more and more expensive to keep this shell “alive” as time goes on and the shell will eventually (several months?) no longer sustain “life” no matter how much intervention is performed. I wouldn’t let this treatment be performed on a rabid dog that bit one of my children—it’s inhumane.