Agony and anger for family over Christmas court ruling that Oakland teen Jahi McMath WILL be taken off life support because 'practically and legally she is dead' after routine tonsil surgery
A judge ordered on Tuesday that a 13-year-old Northern California girl declared brain dead after suffering complications following a tonsillectomy be taken off life support.
But Alameda County Superior Court Judge Evelio Grillo gave Jahi McMath's family until 5pm on December 30 to file an appeal.
She will remain on life support until then.
The issue was ordered after Dr Paul Graham Fisher, from Stanford University, testified earlier in the day that Jahi meets all the criteria of brain death - the second expert to reach such a conclusion.
The Children's Hospital of Oakland filed court papers on Tuesday morning asking that the girl be taken off life support after doctors there also concluded she was brain dead.
But her family wants to keep the 13-year-old connected to a breathing machine and has asked for a third evaluation, believing that 'miracles happen'.
'Because Ms. McMath is dead, practically and legally, there is no course of medical treatment to continue or discontinue; there is nothing to which the family's consent is applicable,' the hospital's Tuesday court filing stated.
Fisher first provided his opinion to Alameda County Judge Evelio Grillo behind closed doors on Tuesday morning.
Fisher briefly provided his conclusions in open court that Jahi has no brain activity. Fisher left court without taking questions.
Dr. Robin Shanahan, a Children's Hospital doctor, was next called to testify in the judge's chambers.
Alameda County Judge Evelio Grillo has previously ordered Jahi to remain on life support until Dec. 30, or until further order from the court.
He is considering the hospital's request to immediately remove the teen from life support, as well as the family's demand for a third opinion and that Jahi remain on a machine to keep her breathing.
The family's attorney Christopher Dolan said he would file an emergency appeal to keep Jahi on life support if the trial judge orders her removal from the ventilator.
Dolan also wants the third evaluation done by Dr. Paul Byrne, a pediatric professor at the University of Toledo.
The hospital's attorney objected to Byrne, saying he is not a pediatric neurologist.
Byrne is the co-editor of the 2001 book Beyond Brain Death, which presents a variety of arguments against using brain-based criteria for declaring a person dead.
In a phone interview, Byrne said he could not comment in detail because he had not seen any of Jahi's medical records.
But the fact that her ventilator is still functioning properly is a sign that she is alive, he said.
Jahi was declared brain dead after experiencing complications following a tonsillectomy at Children's Hospital in Oakland.
The ventilator won't work on a corpse,' he said.
'In a corpse, the ventilator pushes the air in, but it won't come out.
'Just the living person pushes the air out.'
Jahi's family says the girl bled profusely after a tonsillectomy and then went into cardiac arrest before being declared brain dead.
Outside the courtroom on Monday, Dr. David Durand, chief of pediatrics at Children's, said staff have the 'deepest sympathy' for the family, but that Jahi is brain dead.
'The ventilator cannot reverse the brain death that has occurred and it would be wrong to give false hope that Jahi will ever come back to life,' he said.
