by Bay City News
Children's Hospital Oakland will be allowed take 13-year-old Jahi McMath off of life support at 5 p.m. today barring a last-minute legal maneuver or a transfer to another facility by the girl's family, a hospital spokesman said. The family of Jahi, an eighth-grade student at the E.C. Reems Academy of Technology and Arts in Oakland, has said that they're trying to find another facility that would accept Jahi and try to keep her alive, but Children's Hospital spokesman Sam Singer said the family and their attorney, Christopher Dolan, haven't told the hospital of any facility that will take her.
Singer said Children's Hospital told Jahi's family that the girl could be transferred to another facility provided certain conditions are met but that so far the family hasn't found another place for her. Dolan and Omari Sealey, Jahi's uncle, who is a spokesman for her family, couldn't be reached for comment this morning. Jahi's mother, Nailah Winkfield, said in a posting on the website GoFundMe.com on Sunday that one facility that had been expected to accept Jahi had backed out but "we still have a chance at one more facility so let's pray." As of 11 a.m. today, the website had collected $22,600 in contributions to help pay the cost of transferring Jahi to another facility. Jahi went to Children's Hospital on Dec. 9 for what her family said was supposed to be a routine tonsillectomy to cure a sleep apnea problem. However, doctors said the surgery was complex, and Jahi suffered complications in the days after the procedure. She was declared brain dead on Dec. 12.
Alameda County Superior Court Judge Evelio Grillo granted Jahi's family a temporary restraining order requiring Children's Hospital to keep Jahi on life support, but last Tuesday he said the hospital had provided convincing evidence that the girl was brain dead and could remove her from life support at 5 p.m. today unless Jahi's family was granted a stay by a higher court. Singer said, "The ball is now in the family's court and we hope that they can come to peace with the tragic nature of this case." He said, "Jahi is dead and no amount of hope or prayer or medical procedures will bring her back to life."
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