The family of Jahi McMath, a 13-year-old girl who has been rendered brain dead after what was supposed to be a routine tonsillectomy, were scheduled to say their final goodbyes to the teen on Monday but a court has extended McMath’s life support for another week.
Originally, Jahi was to be taken off life support at 5:00 p.m. (8:00 p.m. ET) on Monday, but a judge granted an extension until Jan. 7 at the same time.
Jahi’s mother Nailah Winkfield broke down in tears when she received the news that her daughter would have another week to try to pull through despite the bleak outlook that doctors have predicted.
“Who wants to know the date and time their child would die?” Winkfield said. “I don’t care what anyone has to say about what I’m doing… I have to do what is right for me and Jahi.”
Jahi’s family believes that the teen still has the ability to pull through, although the doctors who work at Children’s Hospital Oakland believe it is time for the family to let go because Jahi is “practically and legally” dead.
“This child was sitting on death row,” the family’s attorney, Christopher Dolan, told the press on Monday. “This was a facility that was hellbent on ending this child’s life today, and a court stepped in.”
Jahi is still at Children’s Hospital Oakland, but a spokesman for the family revealed that they are making moves to try transfer her to another facility in New York that is considering taking the teen under their care.
The Oakland hospital, however, won’t allow the family to do so until the necessary legal procedures are taken.
“We need to be able to talk to the other facility to understand what it is they are capable of doing,” Cynthia Chiarappa, a hospital spokeswoman, said. “This is not transferring an individual in a vegetative state, but a dead body.”
Jahi’s family, on the other hand, don’t feel the Oakland hospital has the right to make that call, since they believe it is responsible for the problems caused by the tonsillectomy.
“We have our strong religions convictions and set of beliefs and we believe that, in this country, a parent has the right to make decisions concerning existence of their child, not a doctor… and definitely not a doctor who runs the facility that caused the brain death in the first place,” the family said in a public statement that was released over the weekend.
Tragedy struck earlier this month after Jahi underwent a tonsillectomy to treat a sleeping disorder, but complications during and after the surgery rendered her brain dead within three days after the procedure was completed.
Jahi’s family has asked for prayers during this time and launched an online fundraising drive that has collected more than $20,000 as of Monday morning.
