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California judge: Teen girl declared brain dead over three years may still be alive
A California judge will permit the family of a comatose teen girl who was declared brain dead over three years ago to make their case that she is still technically alive. (Image source: YouTube screenshot)

California judge: Teen girl declared brain dead over three years may still be alive

A California judge will permit the family of a comatose teen girl who was declared brain dead over three years ago to make their case that she is still technically alive.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that in December 2013, Jahi McMath, then 13, underwent a tonsillectomy at what is now UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland. She experienced complications from the procedure and went into cardiac arrest and suffered hemorrhaging. She was declared brain dead shortly after, the paper said. The case made national headlines when Jahi’s family refused to remove her life support.

Judge Stephen Pulido of Alameda County Superior Court issued a court order this week permitting Jahi’s family to have a jury hear their case.

According to the Chronicle, the judge’s ruling follows recent testimony by Dr. Alan Shewmon, a professor emeritus of pediatrics and neurology at UCLA, that Jahi “is irrevocably and severely neurologically disabled — but not technically dead.”

“There is no question that in December 2013 at Oakland Children’s Hospital, Jahi McMath fulfilled the widely accepted pediatric guidelines for determining brain death,” Shewmon testified. “There is equally no question in my mind that she no longer does, for the single reason that the first of the three cardinal findings in brain death — coma, absence of brainstem reflexes, and apnea — is not fulfilled. Rather, she is intermittently responsive, placing her in the category of ‘minimally responsive state.’”

Jahi has since been transferred to a hospital in New Jersey. Faithwire News noted that the Garden State "allows exemptions for religious beliefs on keeping life support even after a declaration of brain dead."

Jahi's family argued their Christian faith won't permit them to end their daughter's life.

New Jersey doctors said her body is not deteriorating — she even began puberty and started menstruating, the Chronicle reported.

The Chronicle also noted:

If Jahi is reclassified as alive, her family could be entitled to millions of dollars in damages. Awards are capped in California at $250,000 for the wrongful death of a child, but there is no cap for wrongful-injury claims because a court can order medical costs to be paid indefinitely.

Chris Dolan, a family attorney representing Jahi’s family in the federal case, told the Chronicle, “This is a massive win both legally and spiritually for the family.”

“This mother’s been fighting to have her daughter be counted as a living, breathing human being,” Dolan said. “She has great faith that a jury will find that her daughter is indeed alive.”

Dolan's law firm posted videos in 2014 of Jahi appearing to move her foot at her family's request.

(H/T: Faithwire News)

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