http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_24840744/jahi-mcmath-mom-can-remove-brain-dead-daughterJahi McMath: Mom can remove brain-dead daughter from hospital, judge rulesBy Matthias Gafni, Kristin Bender and Matt O'Brien
Oakland Tribune
Posted: 01/03/2014 11:14:18 AM PST | Updated: about 2 hours ago
OAKLAND -- More than three weeks after Jahi McMath was declared brain-dead by doctors at Children's Hospital Oakland, her mother will be allowed to remove her 13-year-old daughter from the facility as long as she assumes full responsibility for her body, according to an agreement between both sides announced Friday morning in Alameda County Superior Court.
The hospital will allow a transfer team to enter the facility, take Jahi out and her entire health responsibility would then be transferred to mother Nailah Winkfield, according to the agreement. The judge denied forcing the hospital to insert a breathing and feeding tube into Jahi, which is required by all long-term care facilities willing to accept Jahi.
A tentative stipulation provided by Jahi's family attorney Christopher Dolan spelled out precise details on how Jahi would be transported from the facility.
"Petitioner must agree that she shall be wholly and exclusively responsible for Jahi McMath the moment custody is transferred in the Hospital's pediatric intensive care unit and acknowledge that she understands that the transfer and subsequent transport could impact that condition of the body, including causing cardiac arrest," according to the document.
Alameda County Sheriff's Office spokesman J.D. Nelson said a death certificate has been issued for Jahi, but is being held pending an autopsy. An air ambulance company that had quoted a price for flying Jahi from Oakland to Long Island, where a facility agreed to take her, said Friday it had not been contacted by the family yet and no flight was imminent.
After the hearing at the lower court, attorneys headed to federal court blocks away in Oakland, where a federal magistrate is expected to also weigh in on the matter.
"It's horrible that this child has died. It's also horrible that it's so difficult for her family to accept that death and I wish and I constantly think that, wouldn't it be great if they could come to terms with this terrible tragic event and I wouldn't have to stand in front of you time after time," said Douglas Straus, an attorney for the hospital, before choking up outside court.
Dolan called the agreement a "victory," but the family still needs to find a doctor to insert the breathing and feeding tubes.
"Until this agreement was just made, everything was in flux. This just removes all those impediments," he told a throng of media outside court. He said "there are doctors who are willing to do the procedure" but would not name them.
He said that getting Jahi nutrition quickly was key because she has not had any for "24 days."
The girl has been on a ventilator since she was declared brain-dead after serious complications resulting from tonsil surgery and two other procedures to remove throat and nasal tissue to treat sleep apnea on Dec. 9.
Jahi's family has been fighting for a court to order the hospital to insert feeding and breathing tubes so the girl's body could be transferred to a care facility, possibly in New York. That facility was linked to Terri Schiavo, a Florida woman who was in a permanent vegetative state before she was removed from life support, sparking a fierce nationwide end-of-life debate. The family has been trying to find an outside doctor willing to perform the procedures, as Children's Hospital Oakland says it will not operate on a "dead body."
"This is a tragic situation and I'm glad the court understands there is no legal, moral or medical duty to perform a surgical procedure on a dead person," Straus said. "There were never any impediments to the transfer of Jahi's body."