Jahi is currently on a ventilator, but her heart is beating on its own and both her family and an independent doctor have said she is physically responding to family members with small movements.
Still, California law allows medical professionals to remove life support if a patient has been declared brain dead, and Children’s Hospital has been fighting to do just that, going so far as to get the coroner to issue a death certificate and a judge to declare her “legally dead.”
“Personally, it's horrible that this child has died,” hospital attorney Douglas Straus told reporters outside the court Friday. “It's also horrible that it's so difficult for her family to accept it. And I constantly think that wouldn't it be great if they were able to come to terms with it.”
The settlement agreement states that Jahi’s mother, Nailah Winkfield, is “wholly and exclusively responsible for Jahi McMath the moment custody is transferred in the hospital's pediatric intensive care unit and acknowledge(s) that she understands that the transfer and subsequent transport could pact the condition of the body, including causing cardiac arrest.”
McMath family attorney Chris Dolan said that the settlement clears the way for Jahi to be moved to a facility where she can begin treatment for her brain injuries.