Jahi McMath is finally at peace

[anon456]

For those who have been following this saga . . I'm glad she was finally allowed to be at peace.

Jahi McMath, girl at center of brain death debate, has died after surgery, family says | Fox News

[Tenebrae, BSN, RN]

Glad her corpse can finally rest in peace.

Although I find it disturbing that any reputable surgeon would operate on someone who has been issued a death certificate

[caliotter3]

Given that they found someone willing to perform surgery on her, it doesn't sound as if she was "allowed" to be at peace. Her body just finally shut down in spite of all efforts to the contrary.

It had to happen eventually.

[EaglesWings21, ASN, RN]

Coded for over two hours? How is this having regard for her life or her best interests? That is the real tragedy here.

[Have Nurse, ADN, RN]

The long and the short of it from someone who claims to have inside knowledge of what happened:

-Jahi had been hospitalized several times for various issues, including January and April of this year for some kind of undisclosed intestinal issue.

-Allegedly Jahi was treated with antibiotics during each of her admissions, but no willing surgeons could be found to do any more than that.

-In early June she was taken to surgery, where no overt explanations for her issues could be found.

-Jahi nevertheless began to decline, main issues being renal failure and lactic acidosis, culminating in disseminated intravascular coagulation, multi-system organ failure, and fulminant liver failure causing uncontrollable bleeding.

-Allegedly she was taken back to OR on June 22, was sent back to the intensive care unit, where she shortly arrested and was coded for over 2 hours sans success.

This has not been corroborated officially and could be completely manufactured, but I suspect it is a truthful account.

Poor child!!

[elkpark]

Coded for over two hours? How is this having regard for her life or her best interests? That is the real tragedy here.

Sadly, it's a little late (about five years late) to be worrying about "her life or her best interests." That ship sailed a long time ago.

[EaglesWings21, ASN, RN]

Elkpark- yes, but I would think that after seeing her code, be pronounced brain dead by multiple doctors, spend almost 5 years being hooked up to life support, battling an infection all year, going into DIC and bleeding out would be enough for her mother to think maybe we should just let her die. But no, they coded her for two hours. Things like this just leave me with nothing else to say expect WTF. Oh and I forgot, perform surgery on a child that was pronounced dead years before.

[marable]

From what I have read the surgery must have been for an ischemic bowel....Poor little girl had been having fecal impactions , ultimately developed multi organ failure ) liver and kidney failure), internal bleeding , DIC ....RIP Jahi....

[adventure_rn, MSN, NP]

Coded for over two hours? How is this having regard for her life or her best interests? That is the real tragedy here.

My thoughts exactly.

Unfortunately, I think it comes down to the hospital trying to cover their butts rather than acting in the best interest of the patient, with the knowledge that the hospital would probably be sued by the parents and crucified by the press if the family claimed that the team didn't do 'everything in their power to save her.'

[Aunt Slappy]

Anyone want to imagine what the room looked like after a 2 hour code on a person dying from DIC?

Probably a lot like Johnny Depp's death scene in Nightmare on Elm Street.

[brandy1017, ASN, RN]

I feel sad for Jahi and her family and all they went thru. From what I read it sounded like her death from the beginning was caused by her Dr not taking her bleeding seriously and blowing off the nurses. I witnessed a man's death post heart surgery where the nurse caring for him called the Dr numerous times about his bleeding but it was a weekend and he wouldn't take it seriously and come in and see the patient. The patient coded with an open chest and died. Even worse the wife had a premonition this would happen and had voiced her fears to me the night before. I truly believe he didn't need to die and that the Dr was ultimately negligent and responsible for his refusal to come in, see the patient and take him back to the OR. But that doesn't change the outcome.

As nurses we must be advocates for our patients and if we find ourselves in a similar situation not accept no for an answer, go to your supervisor, go over the Dr's head. No one should have to die from bleeding out. In both these instances if the doctors had not ignored the patients they both would probably still be alive.

I feel for the poor nurses one who couldn't get the Dr's attention in the first place and all the others after who were forced to take care of Jahi and keep her body alive even when her brain was not! I can't imagine doing 2 hours of CPR on her, it sounds like a nightmare. I don't understand how she could still be a full code all these years while brain dead on a ventilator. It makes no sense to me.

[Night__Owl, BSN, RN]

There's no way to know what happened to cause her brain death. The hospital can't release details, so the only "side" of the story we have ever really heard is the family's. We all know how far a patient or family member's story can depart from the truth.

Still, what happened after her brain death is much more cut and dried. I'm glad it's over.

[Horseshoe, BSN, RN]

Although I find it disturbing that any reputable surgeon would operate on someone who has been issued a death certificate

Boggles the mind, doesn't it? There are doctors who don't "believe" in brain death. Don't even get me started on Byrne.