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03-04-2015 07:24 AM
I didn't realize how long this has been going on.
http://news.yahoo.com/family-california-girl-left-brain-dead-tonsillectomy-sues-010100184.html
" LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The family of a Northern California girl who made national headlines when she was declared brain dead after a tonsillectomy to correct sleep apnea sued the surgeon and hospital on Tuesday, alleging medical malpractice.
Jahi McMath, who was 13 when she suffered cardiac arrest in December 2013 following the surgery, remains on a ventilator in New Jersey at her family's insistence despite a death certificate issued by the coroner in Alameda County, California.
The lawsuit, filed in Alameda County Superior Court by McMath's mother, stepfather and other family members, alleged that surgeon Frederick Rosen performed a "complex and risky" operation on the teen despite finding an anatomical abnormality that increased the chances of her hemorrhaging.
The suit also charged that doctors and nurses at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital in Oakland failed to respond properly when McMath began coughing up blood after the surgery.
Representatives for the hospital could not be reached for comment on the legal action on Tuesday.
McMath's family disputes the finding that she is brain dead and petitioned a judge last year to revoke her death certificate and restore her status as a living person.
Family members cited statements from several doctors saying new medical tests performed on the girl found unmistakable signs of brain function, even awareness, at odds with a brain death diagnosis.
The family withdrew its petition after those assertions were challenged by a Stanford University pediatric neurology specialist appointed by the court to review the findings. But family members have said they have not abandoned the cause.
Experts say the case's unusual circumstances, including the rarity of a patient being kept on life support so long after brain activity was deemed to have stopped, could have implications for defining brain death in the future.
Reversal of the death certificate would let McMath's mother bring her home from New Jersey, where the family found a facility that would keep her on a ventilator. That state, unlike California, allows families to keep a relative on life support on religious grounds after a brain-death declaration, an attorney for the family has said."
03-04-2015 07:45 AM
What a surprise!
03-04-2015 07:54 AM
On 3/4/2015 terrier3 said:What a surprise!
Maybe more a surprise they didn't sue sooner?
03-04-2015 10:00 AM
There's a risk in every surgery, I don't think it was negligence. It's been over a year. I am not so sure her physical body is here.
03-04-2015 10:10 AM
Just like in the other case - they first claimed that doctors said she has signs of brain function - but after review by doctors from Stanford, they withdrew the claim that she wasn't brain dead.
She needs to be removed from "life" support and buried.
I find it disgusting that some exploitative people have glommed onto this case and have enabled the family to keep her on artificial "life" support.
They are all using this poor girl for their own ends, IMO.
03-04-2015 10:55 AM
There may have been negligence. We don't have that kind of information.
That's a separate issue than trying to get the death certificate reversed. I'm not sure they'll be successful with that.
03-04-2015 11:19 AM
I would actually be open to hearing evidence that supports the claim of negligence, but I do wish they'd let her go. My heart breaks for her.
03-04-2015 11:32 AM
If they get the death certificate reversed, they can claim benefits for her, (SSI, etc.). If she has been declared, 'legally dead'- the government takes her off the books, and this is a case of abuse of a corpse.
03-04-2015 11:35 AM
On 3/4/2015 lacey1 said:If they get the death certificate reversed, they can claim benefits for her, (SSI, etc.). If she has been declared, 'legally dead'- the government takes her off the books, and this is a case of abuse of a corpse.
I thought this was a medical malpractice suit...they want to make MILLIONS.
03-04-2015 11:36 AM
On 3/4/2015 lacey1 said:If they get the death certificate reversed, they can claim benefits for her, (SSI, etc.). If she has been declared, 'legally dead'- the government takes her off the books, and this is a case of abuse of a corpse.
Plus, a lawyer can not legally defend a corpse in a court of law. They will have to get that death certificate reversed. I heard they will have to move her to a state,where that is possible
and establish residency. This whole case is so macabre.
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