Brain-Dead Girl’s Family Wants Her Moved To Nursing Facility

The family of a 13-year-old girl who was left brain-dead after a routing tonsillectomy wants her to be moved to a nursing facility, as they fight to keep her alive.

The newest developments in the saga of Jahi McMath, the victim of a tonsil surgery gone terribly wrong, have her family once again engaged in a fight with an Oakland, California hospital, to have her moved before they can pull the plug, in effect ending her life.

The family of the brain-dead girl, says the 13-year-old must have a tracheotomy and a feeding tube implanted prior to being moved to an undisclosed location.

However, officials at the Children’s Hospital Oakland have refused to perform the procedures on the brain-dead girl saying it is not “appropriate medical practice” on the “body of a deceased person.”

For all intents and purposes the hospital considers the girl dead, but her family refuses to pull the plug on the ventilator that is keeping her alive.

After a Judge ordered on Tuesday the hospital can disconnect the brain-dead girl from the ventilator on December 30, the family is moving quickly to have her moved, but they cannot do so without the procedure.

With the deadline looming the family says they will, once again, go to court if needed to have the tracheotomy performed and questions the hospitals reasons for refusing to do so.

“You don’t want her, that’s fine,” the brain-dead girl’s uncle Omari Sealey told reporters on Thursday. “We have a place that does want her, that wants to keep her alive. So help us get her out of your hospital so we can take her somewhere else where someone wants to help us keep her alive.”

According to the local ABC affiliate, the family’s insurance company is willing to cover the expenses related to the brain-dead girl’s care.

Jahi was declared brain-dead, after surgery to remove her tonsils –to help with her sleep apnea– resulted in complications that led to cardiac arrest.

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Evelio Grillo ruled Tuesday that Children’s Hospital Oakland did not have to keep Jahi connected to life support, and that she was brain-dead under accepted medical standards.

“I’m sorry for your loss, and if I could fix it I would, but I can’t,” Grillo said during the hearing.

Grillo made his ruling after an independent neurologist, not affiliated with Children’s Hospital Oakland, found that Jahi showed no signs of brain activity and should be declared brain dead.

The day after the ruling, the brain-dead girl’s family celebrated Christmas in her hospital room and said it was not giving up hope even though the hospital says there is no way to reverse her current condition.