Judge gives mom OK to move girl from hospital

Associated Press

OAKLAND, Calif.

A judge said Friday that the mother of a 13-year-old girl who was declared brain dead after tonsil surgery can remove her daughter from a California hospital if she assumes full responsibility for the consequences.

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Evelio Grillo said Jahi McMath can be transferred under a deal with Children’s Hospital Oakland that will hold Nailah Winkfield accountable for developments that could include Jahi’s going into cardiac arrest.

The hospital has argued since before Christmas that Jahi’s brain death means she is legally dead and she should be disconnected from the ventilator that has kept her heart pumping for 31/2 weeks.

Winkfield, refusing to believe her daughter is dead as long as her heart is beating, has gone to court to stop the machine from being disconnected. She wants to transfer Jahi to another facility after forcing Children’s Hospital to fit her daughter with breathing and feeding tubes or allowing an outside doctor to perform the surgical procedures.

Judge Grillo on Friday rejected the family’s move to have the hospital insert the tubes, noting the girl could be moved with the ventilator and intravenous fluid lines she has now. He also refused to compel the hospital to permit an outside doctor perform the procedures on its premises.

The family’s attorney, Christopher Dolan, nonetheless called the agreement a big step in resolving the dispute. Dolan said the family has located an unaffiliated physician to put in the tubes and that an outpatient clinic in New York that treats people with traumatic brain injuries has expressed willingness to care for Jahi.