Post by Velar Fricative on Mar 21, 2016 13:22:38 GMT -5
WARNING - there is a picture at the link. However, I won't lie...I expected her to look so much worse than she actually does. She just looks asleep in the photo.
FRANKLIN TWP. — A California girl being cared for in New Jersey after being declared brain dead more than two years ago is "as healthy and beautiful as ever, proving the naysayers wrong," her family said last week in a Facebook post.
The post, which included a picture of 15-year-old Jahi McMath and her mother, Nailah Winkfield, was published on March 15 on the "Keep Jahi McMath on life support" Facebook page.
"Jahi as healthy and beautiful as ever, proving the naysayers wrong," the post reads. "A fighter, A warrior, A blessed child, Gods got your back little girl, keep fighting. Your testimony will be a great one.
"Prayers going up from many, all the prayers, good wishes combined with your mothers love for you which is pure and soothing will definitely keep you going. Stay blessed everyone and thank you for your prayers and love."
Doctors later declared her brain dead and sought to turn off her life-support, but McMath's family ultimately obtained a restraining order preventing the hospital from terminating her life support.
Her family transported McMath in 2014 to New Jersey, because the state has a religious exemption for those who object to terminating medical support based on a brain death diagnosis. The family has been living in Franklin Township, Somerset County.
McMath's family is suing the hospital over the allegedly botched surgery and accusing officials of pressuring them to donate Jahi's organs. Winkfield, her mother, also has filed a federal lawsuit to get her daughter's death certificate declared void.
Hmm. I didn't realize there was an issued death certificate. I have a hard time getting this case off my mind once I start thinking about it. It's confounding to me.
Post by ChillyMcFreeze on Mar 21, 2016 13:47:28 GMT -5
Over/under on how long this will go on? At this point, as long as someone is paying the medical bills, it looks like the family is never going to let her go. So sad.
So, at first, I could kinda of wrap my head around how it got so bad - her mother is devastated at the loss of her child, not in her right mind and surrounded by batshit crazy "trusted" family and friends and others with agendas telling her to save her baby. She's easily manipulatable because of her grief for those who have ulterior motives (money, causes, whatever). Obviously, it was tragic and devastating, but you could suspend rational thought and see how a perfect storm of crazy got them to the crazy place.
But...what now? Has her poor mother left her home (job?) to live near this child's body? Because they had to move the body, did they not, to somewhere where they could find a loophole allowing them to keep her "alive"? What is she hoping for now? Her mind must be broken by this point. What is the endgame here?
So, at first, I could kinda of wrap my head around how it got so bad - her mother is devastated at the loss of her child, not in her right mind and surrounded by batshit crazy "trusted" family and friends and others with agendas telling her to save her baby. She's easily manipulatable because of her grief for those who have ulterior motives (money, causes, whatever). Obviously, it was tragic and devastating, but you could suspend rational thought and see how a perfect storm of crazy got them to the crazy place.
But...what now? Has her poor mother left her home (job?) to live near this child's body? Because they had to move the body, did they not, to somewhere where they could find a loophole allowing them to keep her "alive"? What is she hoping for now? Her mind must be broken by this point. What is the endgame here?
I agree. This poor mother will never be able to let go, never be able to move on and eventually have some semblance of a normal life while this continues. It's tragic and I understand her not wanting to accept this loss...but it's now become this indefinitely all-consuming thing for this whole family.
Does anyone involved honestly believe she is just going to wake up one day?
So, at first, I could kinda of wrap my head around how it got so bad - her mother is devastated at the loss of her child, not in her right mind and surrounded by batshit crazy "trusted" family and friends and others with agendas telling her to save her baby. She's easily manipulatable because of her grief for those who have ulterior motives (money, causes, whatever). Obviously, it was tragic and devastating, but you could suspend rational thought and see how a perfect storm of crazy got them to the crazy place.
But...what now? Has her poor mother left her home (job?) to live near this child's body? Because they had to move the body, did they not, to somewhere where they could find a loophole allowing them to keep her "alive"? What is she hoping for now? Her mind must be broken by this point. What is the endgame here?
I agree. This poor mother will never be able to let go, never be able to move on and eventually have some semblance of a normal life while this continues. It's tragic and I understand her not wanting to accept this loss...but it's now become this indefinitely all-consuming thing for this whole family.
Does anyone involved honestly believe she is just going to wake up one day?
Was Jahi an only child?
No, she has a younger sister. There are all kinds of photos of the younger sister kissing her and all that. Not sure if there are other siblings.
Post by DotAndBuzz on Mar 21, 2016 15:16:10 GMT -5
Definitely looks like there's a tracheostomy (a tube that goes directly into her trachea through her neck, bypassing her mouth). For long-term artificial ventilation, those are they way to go and offer far fewer complications. It's being covered by the towel, along with the blue and white tubes leading to it from the ventilator.
They also did her make-up, looks like they did her eyebrows, styled her hair, and filtered the shit out of that picture, so yes, she looks lovely. I would bet that the skin on her back and pressure points on her joints doesn't look so pretty. Long term unconscious immobility is not without complications. This poor child. And her poor mother, who is now in an impossible situation.
Post by marriedfilingjoint on Mar 21, 2016 20:15:41 GMT -5
I have so many questions. Why are her eyes covered in most of the photos, and then they are kinda blurry (like you can do in Instagram) in the most recent pic? Another article suggested that her parents are confused about the difference between brain death and cardiac death. Can someone elaborate? Obviously I know what brain and cardiac mean, but why is there a distinction legally, I guess is what I'm asking? Her mother posts on Facebook that her daughter has responded to verbal cues, knows right from left, etc. Is that likely? I am not suggesting she's lying.
I have so many questions. Why are her eyes covered in most of the photos, and then they are kinda blurry (like you can do in Instagram) in the most recent pic? Another article suggested that her parents are confused about the difference between brain death and cardiac death. Can someone elaborate? Obviously I know what brain and cardiac mean, but why is there a distinction legally, I guess is what I'm asking? Her mother posts on Facebook that her daughter has responded to verbal cues, knows right from left, etc. Is that likely? I am not suggesting she's lying.
If you do a search here you'll find a lot of old posts talking about at least some of this stuff but IIRC her eyes are covered to prevent them from drying out. Her parents have been led by a shady attorney and some religious zealots (I think? Maybe a pastor or something) to believe that there is no difference between brain vs cardiac death and that she's still alive. Brain death has very distinct legal, ethical and medical parameters and since I am not an attorney or doctor I don't want to describe that too much but Jahi is legally, medically and for all other intents and purposes dead. Her mom's not lying on FB when she talks about verbal cues, at least not in a traditional sense of the word. She seems to truly believe that the muscle twitches she is witnessing are being caused by her verbal cues to Jahi, which from what I understand is not the case.
Ok hold the phone. Whoever took that picture posted that she is growing into a woman. Can... she go through puberty under these circumstances?
Yes, probably. Even if she is brain dead. This is part of the controversy of brain death - that parts of the brain (specifically *some* hormone secretions) and actual physical growth continue even after a person is brain dead. That's why a pregnant brain dead woman can gestate a fetus - the hormones necessary to continue the pregnancy continue.
From the article though, it looks like, if there's still brain functioning (assuming the attorney for the family isn't totally making that up), she was incorrectly diagnosed as brain dead. She may be in a persistent vegetative state instead. Either way, she's not waking up. But if it's PVS, she's not dead.
I just don't get it. If she is truly brain dead, she has to be in all sorts of stages of...well. Not pretty.
Were her brain scans ever released?
I don't know if it is clear that the body will start to breakdown. When this first happened I read a story of a boy that was kept on ventilators for 20+ years after being declared brain dead. I think he eventually had pneumonia and the ventilators stopped working (I can't really remember) they did an autopsy and found that his brain was calcified, so it had long stopped working. But I guess the ventilator kept the oxygen in his blood, which I think is what keeps the cells in the body from breaking down.
Yeah, that's why I wondered about siblings. That poor kid. How horrible to have this be your whole childhood. Losing a sibling would be bad enough, but this awful limbo I really think is worse.