The family of 13-year-old Jahi McMath, whose routine tonsil surgery left her brain damaged last year, has petitioned a judge to have her declared “alive again.”
The family’s attorney, Chris Dolan, says he has “medical experts, including world-class experts on brain death who will testify she is not brain dead.”
McMath’s family won a high-profile battle to keep her on life support, despite medical reports stating she was brain dead. The coroner even issued a death certificate. McMath was released from a California hospital into the care of family members who agreed to be fully and exclusively responsible for her care and treatment. McMath has been cared for at a New Jersey Roman Catholic hospital at a private expense.
If the judge rules in the family’s favor, McMath could be cared for at state taxpayer’s expense.
McMath suffered from cardiac arrest following the tonsil surgery on December 9, 2013. She was left so severely brain damaged the hospital described the teen effectively dead, with no chance of survival without a respirator. Her mother Nailah Winkfield and uncle, Omari Sealey, have always refused to accept the prognosis, believing she could recover. They said the teenager even responded to her mother’s voice.