Life support extended for girl in California

Associated Press

OAKLAND, Calif.

The family of a girl who was declared brain dead after what was supposed to be a routine tonsillectomy received another reprieve Monday from a judge who ordered the 13-year-old to be kept on life support for another week.

Doctors at Children’s Hospital Oakland say Jahi McMath will never recover, so they want to take her off the machines that are keeping her body functioning. Her family wants to continue life support, saying they have hope she will still pull through.

Shortly before a 5 p.m. Monday deadline that was set in a previous ruling, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Evelio Grillo ordered the hospital to keep Jahi on a ventilator until Jan. 7.

Meanwhile, the family’s lawyer filed suit in federal court, requesting that the hospital be compelled to perform a tracheotomy for breathing and to insert a feeding tube — procedures that would allow Jahi to be transferred to a facility willing to care for her. The hospital has said it’s unethical to perform surgery on a person who is legally dead.

Jahi’s mother, Nailah Winkfield, said she wept when she heard about the delay. She said it was an answer to her prayers and a sign that she was right to keep fighting.