We ask for everyone’s prayers over this tragic situation where 13-year-old Jahi McMath has been declared brain-dead following complications from a routine surgery to remove her tonsils.
Children’s Hospital Oakland had told the family of Jahi McMath that the girl would be pulled from life support because she had been declared dead under California law. Under California law, legal brain death must be declared by two separate doctors performing two separate sets of tests at least 3 hours apart.
McMath had gone to Children’s Hospital Oakland on December 9 to have her tonsils removed to cure a sleep apnea problem. McMath’s uncle, Omari Sealey said that McMath had trouble breathing and suffered “an enormous amount of bleeding” after the procedure. Thursday, McMath went into cardiac arrest and was declared brain-dead. “We didn’t want her to be removed from life support, but the decisionis out of our hands, because it’s been declared a legal death,” Sealey said.
Dr. David Durand, chief of the hospital’s pediatrics department, issued a statement saying that the hospital was reviewing McMath’s case “very closely.” His statement continued, “Our hearts go out to her family, and we want to support them during this extremely difficult time.” He said the hospital cannot disclose any further details about the case, citing the McMath family’s wishes.
Sealey said that Jahi did not want to have the tonsellectomy procedure and had told her mother before she went in for the surgery that “something bad is going to happen to me.”
“Something terrible went wrong,” Sealey said. “We hope the hospital’s investigation is conducted fairly and we get some answers.”
Again, we ask for everyone’s prayers for Jahi and her family.
