Posted on 01/02/2014 5:48:01 AM PST by SoFloFreeper
The family of Terri Schiavo, a comatose woman who died in 2005, has become involved in helping the family of a comatose California teenager.
Jahi McMath's family hopes to transfer the 13-year-old from Children's Hospital Oakland to New Beginnings, a New York facility dedicated to Schiavo's memory, the San Jose Mercury News reported. Jahi's family has gone to court to force Children's to keep her on a ventilator, while the hospital contends she is brain dead.
Schiavo was the focus of a lengthy legal battle between her husband, who wanted to remove her from a feeding tube and allow her to die, and her parents. In the months before her death, the case attracted national attention.
The Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Foundation said Tuesday it has been helping Jahi's family but has done so quietly because of the case's "sensitivity."
"Jahi McMath has been labeled a 'deceased' person. Yet she retains all the functional attributes of a living person, despite her brain injury," the foundation said. "This includes a beating heart, circulation and respiration, the ability to metabolize nutrition and more. Jahi is a living human being."
(Excerpt) Read more at upi.com ...
That's what makes this a difficult call. With Terri Schiavo we had videos, court documents, testimony from reputable doctors and other medical staff who had actually examined and cared for Terri, etc. We knew she was alive, because we could see her interacting. All the medical experts agreed that she was alive and responsive, though they didn't all agree on how responsive. She was severely brain damaged, but definitely alive.
In this case all we have is a bunch of he-said/she-said. Some sources say there is a machine forcing her heart to pump. Others say there isn't. Some say her body is already decomposing. Some say it isn't.
If her family want to get the public to support their claim, they need to provide some evidence. Video would be helpful, if they're telling the truth.
Goodness, that Lazarus effect sounds creepy. As if being near a dead person wasn’t creepy enough!
I can certainly see how such reflexes could fool people who are desperately looking for signs of life.
Having grown up on a farm, I have witnessed very strong reflex movements in decapitated chickens. I’ll bet none of this family have ever seen this happen.
This is purely my opinion based on what I’ve read about this case, and what I witness in my “urban” community: The parents are products of inner city schools and are quite ignorant. They are, however, receiving a lot of publicity. Uneducated + video cameras = 15 seconds of fame. Again, this is purely my guess. They are going to get the reverends involved and obama as well. Look for the race card to be used as well.
Also, I don’t think the hospital is trying to control anything. Their hands are tied because a coroner has ruled the girl dead.
Her daughter is NOT breathing. There is a ventilator breathing for this girl. The body tends to move when this happens.
My previous statements still stand. This mother is in denial and cannot accept what is
agreed
The questions I have are:
Who benefits most from pulling the plug - I suspect it’s the hospital that screwed up. I read elsewhere, but haven’t independently sourced, that this is the second oopsie from a tonsillectomy. They will end up paying for this girl’s care until the plug is pulled.
Because of that, is the hospital telling the truth. Because of their financial interest, I’m not sure I trust them.
Our culture loves to pull the plug, even if someone is neither dying nor dead - see Terri Schiavo’s story. And young people can recover from severe brain injuries and sometimes miracles occur.
It does no harm to put her in long term care temporarily. The hospital just doesn’t want to pay the freight. They are refusing to do minor surgery to enable her to be moved - that self-righteous “we don’t do surgeries on dead people” would have gone away pretty quick if she was an organ donor.
Not much pro life are you.
There is no reason to conclude that. You presume facts not in evidence. This girl has already been declared dead. She is on a ventilator which is keeping oxygen in her lungs not life in her body. IF she is actually living then turn the ventilator off and see if she breathes on her own.
I have already stated multiple times (and this will be the last time) that my heart breaks for her family. That their denial is strong does not change facts
After reading your post, I am reconsidering my thinking on the Jahi case. It is now my thinking that the doctors should know the true condition of Jahi McMath. If they have determined that Jahi’s brain is not functioning, we should accept their professional diagnosis. We can be pro-life and not be irrational about it.
keeping Jahi on a ventilator would likely cost thousands of dollars a day, none of which would be covered by insurance if the girl is legally brain-dead.
This is from Children’s Hospital official legal statement (it shows a considerable medical effort to determine the condition of Jahi):
Ms. McMath was admitted to Childrens Hospital on December 9, 2013, for a complicated surgical procedure consisting of an adenotonsillectomy, uvulopalatopharyngoplasty, and submucous resection of bilateral inferior turbinates. Following this surgical procedure, Ms. McMath was admitted, as planned, to Childrenss Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, where she suffered serious complications resulting in a tragic outcomeher death. On December 12, 2013, pursuant to California law, medical guidelines and Childrens procedures, Ms. McMath was declared brain dead as a result of an irreversible cessation of all functions of her entire brain, including her brain stem. Childrens follows the standard established by Task Force on Brain Death in Children: Guidelines for the Determination of Brain Death in Children, An Update of the 1987 Task Force Recommendations (2011) in making such determinations. Two separate Childrens physicians determined that Ms. McMath was brain dead. In addition, at the request of the family, three additional independent physicians—unaffiliated with Childrens and either selected by or approved by Ms. McMaths family/next of kin—examined Ms. McMath. Each confirmed the diagnosis of brain death. All tests and examinations have consistently and definitively confirmed that Ms. McMath is brain dead. Accordingly, Childrens has declared Ms. McMath to be dead. On December 12, 2013 Childrens advised Ms. McMaths family/next of kin that she had
I am humbled by your gracious words.
exactly. it is heartbreaking
What troubles me most is that they are always too hasty.
Good story by Michele Malkin in this thread’s Opening Post:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3107162/posts?page=18#18
Wow.
‘My daughter is breathing, Jahis mother, Nailah Winkfield, says. She moves. When I go in there and touch her, she moves her whole body, her legs, her shoulders. How can you possibly say my child is dead if she responds to my voice?’
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