More than three weeks after Jahi McMath was declared brain dead by doctors at Children's Hospital Oakland, her mother will be allowed to remove her 13-year-old daughter from the facility as long as she assumes full responsibility for her body, according to an agreement announced yesterday, Friday morning in Alameda County Superior Court."It's horrible that this child has died. It's also horrible that it's so difficult for her family to accept that death and I wish and I constantly think that, wouldn't it be great if they could come to terms with this terrible tragic event and I wouldn't have to stand in front of you time after time," said Douglas Straus, an attorney for the hospital, before choking up outside court. The girl has been on a ventilator since she was declared brain-dead after serious complications resulting from tonsil surgery and two other procedures to remove throat and nasal tissue to treat sleep apnea on Dec. 9.
Jahi's family has been fighting for a court to order the hospital to insert feeding and breathing tubes so the girl's body could be transferred to a care facility, possibly in New York. That facility was linked to Terri Schiavo, a Florida woman who was in a permanent vegetative state before she was removed from life support, sparking a fierce nationwide end-of-life debate. The family has been trying to find an outside doctor willing to perform the procedures, as Children's Hospital Oakland says it will not operate on a "dead body."
"This is a tragic situation and I'm glad the court understands there is no legal, moral or medical duty to perform a surgical procedure on a dead person," Straus said. "There were never any impediments to the transfer of Jahi's body."
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