Jahi McMath’s family struggling to find home for brain-dead girl
The family of Jahi McMath, the 13-year-old girl declared brain-dead after a tonsillectomy, was still searching Sunday for a medical facility for her.
The family has said it wants to move McMath to a facility in Southern California. But the San Francisco Chronicle reported that no medical center has been identified and that the girl remains at Children’s Hospital Oakland.
Doctors at the hospital want to disconnect the girl’s ventilator, but her family is fighting to keep her on life support. A judge has ruled that she be kept on life support until 5 p.m. Monday.
A facility in the Bay Area that had agreed to keep the girl on a ventilator indefinitely no longer has room, the family’s attorney, Christopher Dolan, told KGO-TV in San Francisco.
Dolan blamed the situation on a delay caused by Children’s Hospital’s refusal to perform a tracheotomy and insert a feeding tube.
After initially suggesting it would oppose a transfer, Children’s Hospital said on Friday that it was willing to work with the family.
“Children’s Hospital will of course continue to do everything legally and ethically permissible to support the family of Jahi McMath,†the hospital said in a letter to Dolan. “In that regard, Children’s will allow a lawful transfer of Jahi’s body in its current state to another location if the family can arrange such a transfer and Children’s can legally do so.â€
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