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Jahi McMath: Family says brain-dead teen's body may be too deteriorated to save
San Jose Mercury News ^ | 06 Jan 14 | Lisa M. Krieger and David DeBolt

Posted on 01/07/2014 9:43:49 AM PST by Drew68

A day after winning the three-week battle to take their brain-dead daughter from Children's Hospital Oakland, the family of Jahi McMath conceded Monday they are losing the ghastly war against nature.

Her body, checked in at an undisclosed care facility Monday morning, has deteriorated so badly, that "Right now, we don't know if she's going to make it," said attorney Christopher Dolan.

"She's in very bad shape," he said. "What I can tell you is that those examinations show that her medical condition, separate from the brain issue, is not good."

Dolan's frank and sober assessment echoes a Friday legal declaration by Children's Hospital Oakland critical care pediatrician Dr. Heidi R. Flori, who opposed surgical insertion of a feeding tube because the girl's body was deteriorating.

(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: deathpanels; jahimcmath; mcmath; medicalabuse; starvation; waronchildren
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To: Abathar
That would have been some comfort to me at least.

We know my brother's heart saved someone's life. Despite his passing and missing him terribly that gives me some comfort.

21 posted on 01/07/2014 10:04:14 AM PST by usconservative (When The Ballot Box No Longer Counts, The Ammunition Box Does. (What's In Your Ammo Box?))
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To: Navy Patriot
From the article:

She's also getting antibiotics to combat a possible infection.

22 posted on 01/07/2014 10:05:09 AM PST by LucyT ( If you're NOT paranoid, you don't know what's going on.)
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To: Drew68

And what the family refuses to acknowledge is what ALL of the docs have said all along…. her brain is dead, her body is dead. Keeping machines going that pump oxygen into the lungs does not change that fact


23 posted on 01/07/2014 10:06:06 AM PST by Nifster
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To: usconservative

Part of them lives on is how I see it.


24 posted on 01/07/2014 10:06:14 AM PST by Abathar (Proudly posting without reading the article carefully since 2004)
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To: cripplecreek

No. She has been DEAD for 27 days


25 posted on 01/07/2014 10:06:44 AM PST by Nifster
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To: Drew68
One comment after the article:

"some of the people that are saying the mother is holding on long enough for parental negligence in post operation care evidence to disappear. - They are desperate to blame the hospital."

26 posted on 01/07/2014 10:08:01 AM PST by LucyT ( If you're NOT paranoid, you don't know what's going on.)
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To: usconservative

I think the honest issue is that it there are not endless supplies of breathing machines to help living people much less one who is dead.
I can see if it were used a bit to harvest organs for others, but beyond that it is hurting others who need the equipment to monopolize it for a dead person.

That is the other issue, the family does not want to accept she is dead and is that justification to monopolize equipment the living need.


27 posted on 01/07/2014 10:08:12 AM PST by A CA Guy ( God Bless America, God Bless and keep safe our fighting men and women.)
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To: usconservative

I am sorry for your loss. Your words show an incredible ability to be both compassionate and accurate at the same time. Thank you for sharing with us


28 posted on 01/07/2014 10:09:25 AM PST by Nifster
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To: A CA Guy
the family does not want to accept she is dead and is that justification to monopolize equipment the living need.

I won't pretend to know what is in Jahi's family's hearts and minds - other than the grief they're going through must be excruciating beyond belief. As I said above, no one expects a child to die as a result of a routine surgical procedure that's so common it's literally unthinkable that one could die from it.

I cannot imagine the shock that they must have experienced to put them in the state they're in and I can only hope and pray that I never experience it.

Our family lost my younger brother in August 2012 due to a brain aneurysm. He was literally dead before he hit the floor. While tragic and shocking to our family, I don't think I could compare it to losing a child. A childs death goes against the natural order of things.

29 posted on 01/07/2014 10:15:24 AM PST by usconservative (When The Ballot Box No Longer Counts, The Ammunition Box Does. (What's In Your Ammo Box?))
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To: Drew68

What about those who wake-up after years and years in a coma? Is that even possible?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-187920/Coma-man-wakes-19-years.html

This is hilarious!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_nZswGNg74


30 posted on 01/07/2014 10:15:31 AM PST by Carriage Hill (Peace is that brief glorious moment in history, when everybody stands around reloading.)
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To: carriage_hill

There are enormous differences between coma, persistent vegetative state, and brain death.

Certain modern medical practices don’t prolong life, they prolong dying. I fail to see that as somehow an advancement.


31 posted on 01/07/2014 10:20:50 AM PST by Sherman Logan
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To: usconservative

I agree with you about the poor family, but this was kind of made political because of the endless use of the machine the family wanted.
I respect the loss, pain and all that and the hospitals are made to look cruel as they try to get the machine for other living people, but there are just so many machines like that and there are so many others in need that want a chance for life that could maybe make it.

I do think this is a sad lose / lose situation here.


32 posted on 01/07/2014 10:23:10 AM PST by A CA Guy ( God Bless America, God Bless and keep safe our fighting men and women.)
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To: LucyT
From the article:

She's also getting antibiotics to combat a possible infection.

She's getting antibiotics now, in care directed by her family, but there is no definitive declaration in the article that she was getting them at the hospital before she was moved. Read carefully, they let you assume that she was.

33 posted on 01/07/2014 10:24:25 AM PST by Navy Patriot (Join the Democrats, it's not Fascism when WE do it, and the Constitution and law mean what WE say.)
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To: cripplecreek

Oh my God. How sad.


34 posted on 01/07/2014 10:33:10 AM PST by PatriotGirl827 (O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee)
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To: Navy Patriot

There is also no definitive declaration that there is an infection.


35 posted on 01/07/2014 10:34:54 AM PST by goodwithagun (My gun has killed fewer people's than Ted Kennedy's car.)
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To: cripplecreek

that is the family’s line

a dead body can’t digest nutrients

nothing about this body was working except oxygenation via machine and heartbeat, eventually the other organs start to rot


36 posted on 01/07/2014 10:36:09 AM PST by silverleaf (Age takes a toll: Please have exact change)
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To: Drew68

Yes the body could absorb nutrition, either parenterally, or via G-tube. Metabolism is still ongoing outside of the brain, or there wouldn’t be debates like this.


37 posted on 01/07/2014 10:38:14 AM PST by heartwood
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To: LucyT
"some of the people that are saying the mother is holding on long enough for parental negligence in post operation care evidence to disappear. - They are desperate to blame the hospital."

The irony is that the longer they keep her on life support, the more difficult it will be for an autopsy to determine what, if anything, the hospital did wrong.

38 posted on 01/07/2014 10:38:59 AM PST by Drew68
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To: LucyT

what parental negligence? I don’t think Jahi ever left the hospital.


39 posted on 01/07/2014 10:39:21 AM PST by heartwood
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To: US Navy Vet

The family can’t comfort her any more. She left on the 12th of Dec.. As sad as it is, that’s what happened. Her family now should give her body some dignity, lay it to rest and allow others to comfort them.


40 posted on 01/07/2014 10:39:54 AM PST by definitelynotaliberal (Go, Cruz! Go!)
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