Ethicists criticize treatment of teen, Texas patient
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...ticize-treatment-brain-dead-patients/4394173/
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...ticize-treatment-brain-dead-patients/4394173/
The family has been aided by Dr. Paul Bryne, a doctor in Ohio and the past president of the Catholic Medical Association, who testified in court documents that he saw Jahi move in the hospital and considered her alive. In an exclusive interview with NBC Bay Area on Dec. 27, he said that "brain death" is not "true death."
Jahi arrived at the hospital Monday and was supposed to be released Tuesday, the family said.
Monday night, Chatman, a veteran nurse at Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, noticed her granddaughter was bleeding from her mouth and nose. She later went into cardiac arrest.
Jahi spent Tuesday on a ventilator. By 2 a.m. Wednesday, doctors said she had swelling in her brain, and Thursday, she was declared legally brain-dead, family members said.
"They said, 'What don't you understand?' She is dead, dead, dead,'" said Omari Sealey, the uncle of Jahi McMath, the Oakland teen who has been kept alive by machines since complications from a tonsil surgery last week in a case that has brought national attention and prayers from social media users around the world. "They just kept referring to her as 'a body.'"
Attorney Christopher Dolan said the family would maintain a vigil at Jahi's bedside.
"They're going to have that body surrounded so that nobody can touch Jahi," Dolan said. "They're afraid. Could the hospital go in and try to do something? I think it would absolutely be foolish. But in their eyes she's no longer a person. She's dead. So they're not looking at her like it was your daughter or my daughter, they're looking at her like they've got to get her out of there quickly."
In a statement Thursday, David Durand, the hospital's chief of pediatrics, said, "Our hearts go out to family and friends of Jahi McMath. This is a tragic situation. We implore the family to allow the hospital to openly discuss what has occurred and to give us the legal permission - which it has been withholding - that would bring clarity, and we believe, some measure of closure and deeper understanding of this medical case."
Jahi's story has even caught the attention of California Attorney General Kamala Harris.
"It's tragic, that little girl and what her family must be experiencing, feeling. We are monitoring it to see if and whether there is any role that we would play appropriately. So we are following it and I'm paying attention to it," said Harris
An Oakland girl declared dead by Children's Hospital Oakland must be kept on a ventilator until an independent neurologist can examine her to determine if her brain is showing signs of activity, an Alameda County judge ruled Friday in a case stemming from a tonsillectomy that ended in tragedy.
"After the surgery, she (Jahi) was fine. She went into the recovery room. She was alert and talking, and she was asking for a Popsicle because she said her throat hurt. As part of the procedure, she was meant to spend the night in ICU," Sealey said. "When she got moved to ICU, there was a 30-minute wait until any family member could go see her. Upon entry, they saw that there was way too much blood."
"She lost four pints of blood. She had to have four blood transfusions. She had two liters of blood pumped out of her lungs, not including what was in her stomach," Sealey said. "There was an enormous amount of blood, and we kept asking, 'Is this normal?' Some nurses said I don't know and some said yes. There was a lot of uncertainty and a lack of urgency."