Girl declared brain dead after tonsil surgery will be taken off life support (Count the horrors!)

Fox News ^ | 12/17/13

[Wanderer99]

A 13-year-old Northern California girl will be taken off life support Tuesday after she was declared brain dead following complications from surgery to remove her tonsils.

KTVU-TV reported Monday that the head of the pediatrics department at Children's Hospital Oakland had told the family of Jahi McMath that the girl would be pulled from life support because she had been declared dead under California law.

[Wanderer99]

I really don't know where to start with this. This is California and CLEARLY the future that Obamacare holds for all our children.

If something like this ever happens to my child, they can all take their false condolences and shove it! I would find all those responsible and carry their severed heads out the hospital door.

[BCW]

...I guess they already calculated the cost to the exchanges and ruled that it wasn’t necessary to have live out on life support...Dr’s can write anything down - where the courts look at them as experts and questioning them can happen - nut not in this case...then again, I know personally my father did not want to live on life support and made sure it was terminated...I guess it would be different since it involves a child...

[LukeL]

I had a surgery where I lost 2700cc of blood over a 6 hour period, I was only 9 and probably all of 3’10 at the time. During the whole surgery I never once dropped my BP or went into hypovolemic shock. For this to happen indicates a high level of incompetence by the medical staff.

[Christian1]

This is what happens under a socialist health system. They run out of other people money then have to kill you.

Same happens in Europe, we pay into the social system but after very expensive wages to hospital management and hospital directors there is no money for basic care.

I must not forget to mention the illegals who get free care.

[silverleaf]

Massive bleeding is an unusual complication of this surgery
You can’t blame this on obamacare

Any surgery has risks and that’s why you sign those papers, but you never ever really expect those things to happen
What a tragedy for the family but this is not a case study in obamacare, imo

[afraidfortherepublic]

This happened to my cousin in 1953. She survived the tonsillectomy only to die 3 months later of previously undiagnosed diabetes. By the time the doctor diagnosed her correctly, he gave her too much insulin and she went into shock and died.

[afraidfortherepublic]

See #6. My cousin was also 13.

[The Great RJ]

While I grieve for her family and understand that sometimes complications can happen beyond anyone's control, I think there is more than a reasonable possibility of incompetence or negligence . Bring ing a law suit will not bring this girl back, but may prevent this from happening again.

Nearly every week I read horror stories from the UK about how their socialized health care system is killing patients. Their "Liverpool pathway protocols" are little more than legalized euthanasia for any patient deemed terminal. Hospital care has deteriorated to where pregnant women are delivering their babies in hallways and closets and patients especially the elderly are left uncared for in filthy beds. At least in the US there is legally recourse to hold people responsible, but in a socialized system where the government runs health care not even that is possible.

[silverleaf]

http://ent.about.com/b/2009/06/01/five-year-old-dies-after-tonsillectomy.htm

bleeding is a complication they warn about, it can be fatal and quickly

I am so sorry, you obviously still feel the pain of such an unexpected loss

[Timber Rattler]

Death panel in action.

[originalbuckeye]

Yep. Four decades ago, my sister-in-law spent the night in the hallway of an NHS hospital after giving birth to her first child. It has gotten MUCH worse and is coming here. And just my two cents......I don’t care how old or sick you are.........EVERY LIFE HAS VALUE! The Government deciding who will get care and live and who will be denied care and will die will not end well here in the USA.

[mdmathis6]

You know I work as an RN and sometimes sucky things happen to patients despite all protocols being followed. Someone reacts to medications in unexpected ways, an artery gets cut or a suture doesn’t hold cause the patient’s tissue was too friable and gives way. A clot gets loose....ect. Tonsillectomies are much more problematic when done beyond the age of 7 or 8 because the tissues are more vascular and subject to hemorrhage. The stories i’m hearing about the post op care and observations concern me since it looks as though the patient may have needed an emergency trache and surgery/cauterization/packing to control the bleeding. Instead...it appears the patient may have aspirated and choked on the clotted blood. That should have never even got that far!

Be that as it may,
it would be interesting to test the responses of certain key administrators by announcing “Take her off life support but no organ donations, I couldn’t bear to know that my child is dead while somebody else’s kid gets to live!”

[afraidfortherepublic]

My point was that excessive bleeding and slow healing can be a symptom of juvenile diabetes. I ended up writing a term paper on tonsillectomy for my senior project in high school physiology. Just about everybody else in my class wrote about Eisenhower’s heart attack! LOL.

And yes, we all still miss Karen.

[mdmathis6]

if you had aspirated and choked on clotted blood as opposed to losing it via normal expected losses with organized replacements of blood and fluids...your BP would have dropped to nothing.

[DJ Taylor]

"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,"

So there are "Death Panels" after all that make these decisions.

[exDemMom]

This is not an indictment of Obamacare. There is a small risk of complications with every kind of surgery; this little girl unfortunately suffered these complications.

I know people love to blame, especially when there is potentially money involved, but it may very well be the case that the surgeon followed all the proper protocols. We’ll see once the medical investigation has been done... although the results of that may never be publicized.

[driftdiver]

The funny thing about conservatives is that we’ll argue with each other over nuances. While the leftists will seize an opportunity whether factual or not, and beat it to death to further their agenda.

[liberalh8ter]

I had my tonsils removed by a laser procedure 20 years ago. The reason for the laser was because there would be minimal bleeding. I can imagine under Obamacare, lasers are too expensive.

I do believe when it's your time, it's your time...... however, unless there's more to this story that hasn't been revealed, something doesn't sound right.

[DaveA37]

“The Government deciding who will get care and live and who will be denied care and will die will not end well here in the USA.”........

You can be damn sure that those who decide will never have to experience what the family of that child is. When passing ANY law, anyone in this country is subject to that law, PERIOD! No exceptions.

[angcat]

Awful my little had this procedure done at 3 years old. Very scary to hear about this.