Nailah Winkfield doesn’t know what a new court-appointed independent doctor will say about her daughter, who was declared brain dead after tonsil surgery this month.
But she has no doubt about one thing: her plan to keep fighting for her daughter to stay on life support.
“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 exclusive interview with CNN’s The Lead on Monday. “I just want her to have more time. There are so many stories of people waking up in her situation.”
Doctors at Children’s Hospital & Research Center in Oakland, California, have said 13-year-old Jahi McMath is brain dead and won’t wake up.
“We have the deepest sympathy for Jahi’s mother, who wishes her daughter was alive; but 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,” Dr. David Durand, the hospital’s chief of pediatrics, said in a statement on Monday.
McMath was declared brain dead Dec. 12, three days after the surgery.
The case has drawn national attention and sparked protests from some local leaders who say the hospital should have provided better care.
On Monday, a judge appointed Dr. Paul Fisher, chief of pediatric neurology at Stanford Children’s Hospital, to evaluate Jahi.
Fisher is expected to testify on the case in a closed hearing Tuesday, according to court documents.
Alameda Superior Court Judge Evelio Grillo also ruled that the hospital must hold off on any decisions regarding discontinuing life support until Dec. 30.
And he encouraged both sides to work together.
“This is a very, very charged case. The stakes are very high. There is a young girl involved, and I think it would suit both parties well if you would speak with each other about how we are going to get through the next few days,” Grillo said.
Ultimately, the fight pits the family’s faith against what the hospital calls false hope.
Winkfield told CNN Monday that she’s seen recent improvements in her daughter’s condition. A hospital monitor suggests her daughter is trying to breathe on her own, she said.
“They told me without your brain, you can’t take your own breath,” Winkfield said. “Well, she’s trying, so that means something’s working.”
Winkfield said the memory of watching her daughter bleeding profusely after the surgery remains seared in her mind.
The hospital hasn’t done enough to explain to her what went wrong, she said.
Read the full story at cnn.com
