Jahi McMath: Mother Of Girl Brain-Dead After Tonsillectomy Fights To Keep Her Alive

Jahi McMath remains brain-dead after a routine tonsillectomy went wrong, but now the mother of the 13-year-old girl is fighting to keep the girl alive in hopes of a miracle.

Jahi went in to Children’s Hospital & Research Center Oakland on December 9 for a tonsillectomy intended to treat sleep apnea, but had complications after the procedure and went into cardiac arrest. Three days later she was declared brain dead.

The girl is now at the center of a medical and legal battle, with the supervising doctor at the hospital saying there is “absolutely no medical possibility” that the girl will wake up, according to a court declaration. But Jahi’s mother is taking the battle to court, receiving an order from a judge that the 13-year-old can remain on a ventilator for another week while doctors perform more tests.

Jahi’s mother, Nailah Winkfield, said she is grateful to be able to get the second opinion and has no plans to give up her legal fight..

“I’m her mother. I’m going to support her. It’s my job to do it. Any mother would do it,” Winkfield said in an interview with CNN. “I just want her to have more time. There are so many stories of people waking up in her situation.”

Family members say doctors are being callous in their treatment of Jahi McMath, and that they are now looking forward to spending Christmas in the hospital with the girl.

“This gives us the opportunity to spend Christmas with Jahi here at the hospital and possibly bring in the New Year with her as well,” Omari Sealey, Jahi’s uncle, told KGO-TV in San Francisco.

Doctors at the hospital have stood by their decision on Jahi McMath, saying in a statement that “the ventilator cannot reverse the brain death that has occurred and it would be wrong to give false hope that Jahi will ever come back to life.”

The second opinion on Jahi McMath could be delivered as early as Tuesday.