Posted on 01/01/2014 4:23:26 AM PST by Kaslin
New Year's Day should be a time of fresh beginnings and forward motion. But for the family of 13-year-old Jahi McMath, the holiday season has been suspended in a cloud of unfathomable pain and suffering: A routine tonsillectomy gone wrong. A beautiful child declared "brain dead." Lawyers, TV cameras, tears.
The McMaths are fighting for life. On Monday, they won a court order that prevents Children's Hospital of Oakland from pulling the plug on Jahi until Jan. 7. Her relatives have been attacked as "publicity hounds" for doing everything possible to raise awareness about the young girl's tragic case. They've been criticized as troublemakers for challenging powerful hospital officials. They've been labeled "selfish" and ignorant because they are praying for a miracle.
Why, many observers ask, don't they just "accept reality" and let go?
As the mother of a 13-year-old girl, I would have done everything Jahi's mom has done to this point. Everything. Here's reality: Children's Hospital faces serious malpractice questions about its care of Jahi. Hospital execs have a glaring conflict of interest in wielding power over her life support. According to relatives, medical officials callously referred to Jahi as "dead, dead, dead" and dismissed the child as a "body."
The McMath family refused to be rushed or pushed around. They demanded respect for their loved one. I say more power to them.
There are plenty of reasons to question the medical establishment's handling of catastrophic cases involving brain injury and "brain death." In 2008, doctors were dead certain that 21-year-old Zack Dunlop was legally deceased after a horrible ATV accident. Tests showed there was no blood flow to his brain. His hospital issued a death notice. Authorities prepared to harvest his organs. But family members were not convinced. A cousin who happened to be a nurse tested Zack's reflexes on his own one last time as the hospital swooped in. The "brain dead" "body" responded. Forty-eight days later, the supposedly impossible happened: "Brain dead" Zack Dunlop walked out of the hospital and lived to tell about his miraculous recovery on the Today Show.
The immense pressure Jahi's family faces to give up and give in reminded me of another child written off by medical and government officials: Haleigh Poutre. She's the miracle child who was nearly beaten to death by her barbaric stepfather. Hooked to a ventilator in a comatose state, she was then nearly condemned to death by Massachusetts medical experts and the state's criminally negligent child welfare bureaucracy, which hastily declared her to be in a hopeless vegetative state and wanted to pull the plug on her life.
The "experts" were wrong. Haleigh breathed on her own; a caring team of therapists nursed her back to health. Soon, she was brushing her hair and feeding herself. She lived to testify against her abusive stepfather, now behind bars. Her survival is a stark warning against blind, yielding trust in Big Nanny and Big Medicine.
We don't know what God has planned for Jahi. But I do know this: America has become a throwaway culture where everything and everyone -- from utensils to diapers to cameras to babies -- is disposable. Elites sneer at the sanctity of life. The Terri Schiavo case brought out the worst, most dehumanizing impulses of American medical ethics debates. And from the attacks I've seen on the McMath family, little has changed.
Schiavo's brother, Bobby, knows exactly how it feels to battle the culture of death and medical expediency. His group, Terri's Network, and other pro-life organizations are trying to help with Jahi's transfer to a long-term care facility. In the meantime, Jahi's plight serves as a teachable moment for those with ears, eyes and hearts open. This is a gift. "Families and individuals must make themselves aware of what so-called 'brain death' is and what it is not," Schindler advises. "Additionally, families and individuals must educate themselves regarding their rights as patients, the advance documentation that must be completed prior to any medical procedure as well as how to ensure best any patient's rights."
Jahi's story should also prompt family discussions about living wills, durable powers of attorney, "do not resuscitate" orders, revocable trusts and advance directives. It's never too early to broach these uncomfortable matters of life and death.
I want to thank Naila Winkfield and the McMath family for not "letting go" so easily. Their plight is every parent's worst nightmare. Their fight reaches beyond ideology, race, and class. The united front of the family and the public testaments of their faith in God are gifts. The Instagram image of Naila clasping her daughter's hand at her hospital bedside -- the hope, the desperation, the abiding love -- is universal. At the start of 2014, the greatest gift of Jahi is her transcendent reminder that all life is precious. Let it not be taken for granted.
They are free to do what they want. They are hoping for a miracle that will not occur.
And I know this sounds cold, but who will pick up this tab?
I pray for this little girl.
Prayers for this child and her parents. May G-d protect them.
The hospital caused it. The hospital should pay for it.
Oh, I am sure they will. Yes, early in the morning I hadn’t thought that through. You are correct.
Doesn’t change the fact that this little girl ain’t coming back.
FTA: “A routine tonsillectomy gone wrong.”
Usually, I’m in full agreement with Michelle. In this instance, she proceeds to write an article based on a flimsy and medically imprecise statement that does not cover the actual procedure. The child had sleep apnea and was having her entire nasal and throat passage re-formed in order to accommodate her weight issues (see photo in another post.) This is way more involved than “a routine tonsillectomy.”
“Doug Straus said this case is not about a “routine” tonsillectomy. He said the surgery was complicated from the beginning, as three procedures were being done simultaneously. The three surgeries, according to court documents, were: an adenotonsillectomy; a uvulopalatopharyngloplasty, or UPPP, which is tissue removal in the throat; and submucous resection of bilateral inferior turbinates, which is nasal obstruction.” (deviated septum, i.e. nasal surgery.)
http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Judge-Orders-Oakland-Hospital-to-Keep-Jahi-McMath-on-Life-Support-236808851.html
She evidently had very severe obstructive sleep apnea which was confirmed by a sleep study performed prior to the surgery. She didn’t just have a little trouble sleeping and snored a bit too loudly but would stop breathing all together several times during the night and that cause her not only her to feel lethargic, but also according to what I’ve read caused her to have other problems like not being able to concentrate at school, mood swings and even wetting herself- urinary incontinence is not uncommon in people with severe sleep apnea. And while people who are overweight are more prone to sleep apnea, untreated sleep apnea increases the risk obesity and makes it harder to lose weight gained and also increases the risk of high blood pressure, heart attack, stroke, diabetes and makes heart arrhythmias more likely. Acid reflux is also often a result of sleep apnea. Sleep apnea can be for some people a very serious condition that left untreated, can lead to serious and potentially fatal complications even without surgery. And who knows what conditions this poor girl had other than sleep apnea.
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/sleepapnea/
http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/sleep-apnea/sleep-apnea
This was not at all a routine or minor surgery. Then again, no surgery is simple or routine and without risks.
That’s the first I’ve heard that she had sleep apnea.....actually I have NEVER heard ANY DETAILS about what happened.
pay for what? to continue what?
The family has not found a single MD or creditable facility in the US that will accept this child’s vent-oxygenated corpse - only some quack faith healer in NY who used to be a hairdresser...Not One! What does that tell us?
Now problem is, the coroner has already pronounced her dead! So corpse transfer protocols apply
Sure the hospital will be sued and they will pay for medical claims, but all medical opinion is that this child is a corpse. A judge and ambulance chasing lawyer and emotion are preventing the family getting the counseling they need to let her go
silverleaf, I have been pronounced dead more than once. (Some people might think I still am.) But here I am. There seems to be a particular coldness about this that just gets my hackles up.
No one knows what the human brain is capable of. ‘Miracles’ have happened before. This little girl is someone’s beloved child, not just a number.
oh I know, I have lost and buried a child
however
when not a SINGLE hospice facilty in California or in this country is willing to take this case
and not a single US neurosurgeon or neurologist is willing to testify there is hope for any recovery (even a limited one) ... you have to suspect that they investigated and determined that this child is dead. Her organs are probably rotting. They claim the hospital is not providing nutrition and the child is dwindling. A cadaver can be hydrated and ventilated for some period of time, but cannot digest food. The parents mistake warm skin and the hiss of air forced into her lungs, for life
I understand loss. and probably also their deep deep denial since they are being enabled by some judge. But from what is being reported, there is OVERWHELMING silence from ANY medical professional or care facility - They (and the judges and lawyer) need to face what others HAVE faced
My heartfelt condolences to you. I am extremely sorry for your loss. Being a parent, you never want to give up hope and I think if it was my child I would exhaust every last gasp to try and save the most loved person in my life. I can’t condemn them for this. The whole thing is just too sad for words.
Did you read the accounts in the above OP of those who DID come back?
“A cousin who happened to be a nurse tested Zack’s reflexes on his own one last time as the hospital swooped in. The “brain dead” “body” responded. Forty-eight days later, the supposedly impossible happened: “Brain dead” Zack Dunlop walked out of the hospital and lived to tell about his miraculous recovery on the Today Show.”
and more stories in the article, and if you search the internet, you can find more.
You sound like a total Obama-brownnosing lackey.
How come some facilities were willing to take her, until pressure was exerted on them? This hospital is not impartial, since they are trying to cover up and save money.
I just don’t happen to believe the hospital and doctors are bad guys, here, and that every doctor and hospital in the US is wanting to pull the plug because they are all in on an attempted malpractice coverup. If there have been doctors and hospitals who disagreed with the pronouncement of death in this case, or any “pressure” , I haven’t read anything about it. Been mostly following the case on Mail Online, a Brit news source with no AMA/obamacare agenda
in addition to losing a child, had a family member become an organ donor after brain death several years ago, and don’t think the family doesn’t still agonize over that decision
how about some anger management here
Obama brown nose? Really? Is that the worst you can do to someone who disagrees with your analysis?
I’m done
Each of those stories have issues that are not brought out in the stories.
Miracles are wonderful.
This kid is, unfortunately, dead. It is horrible. And it’s not fair. But it’s also not fair to this girl to hold on for the parents sake.
Every doctor who has actually examined Jahi has concluded that she is irreversibly brain dead, --doctors both attached to the hospital and independent of it.
Gee, what a surprise, since the hospital cherry picker who could see her and pressured everyone who wanted to be involved. So now that we have Obamacare, all U.S. citizens are property of the government, and the hospitals they command?
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