Look who's back..back again...Jahi's back...

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Specializes in Med-surg, school nursing..

Thanks a lot guys! I've spent the last two hours googling and catching up on Jahi...

Apparently I was living under a rock, as I had never heard of her.

And by the way, this is ridiculous. How does one get a death certificate issued and then family can just take her home to do whatever they want. (Forgive me if the death certificate was reversed, I may not have made it that far in my googlin')

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Specializes in Med-surg, school nursing..

"Christopher Dolan, an attorney for the family, filed complaints in superior and federal courts on Monday to stop the hospital from unhooking Jahi when the previous court order expired at 5 p.m. PT Monday. Also included in the federal complaint was a request that Children's Hospital Oakland perform a tracheotomy and to insert a feeding tube, which are necessary procedures before Jahi can be transferred.

Children's Hospital Oakland "does not believe that performing surgical procedures on the body of a deceased person is an appropriate medical practice," the hospital said in a statement posted on its website last week."

Soooo.... she obviously has a trach now, what doctor would do this, seeing as how she is dead?

Ugh! I am hating you all just a little bit for dragging me into this train wreck. :rolleyes: And yet, I can't look away.

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Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.

My thoughts to her family.

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Specializes in PACU, pre/postoperative, ortho.

Ugh! I am hating you all just a little bit for dragging me into this train wreck. :rolleyes: And yet, I can't look away.

Haha, well make sure you search here at AN! There are a couple long threads from 2 yrs ago when it all was "fresh"! 😂

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Specializes in Med-surg, school nursing..

Oh I have been!

Then sick kids keep comin' in.

Can't you see I catchin' up on Jahi?! Geeze!

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this girl was signed off as dead two years ago and she has a body that is still functioning? i would have bet money that her organs would have shut down long before now. No blood flow to brain, no brain activity but she's still not rotting. how?

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This is so disturbing. How is this family paying for her care??? Someone mentioned something about the laws in NJ being different in terms of coverage for care after brain death, but I'm not aware of this.

Her family isn't paying for her care we are! She is in New Jersey getting free medical care through Medicaid because of a legal loophole her family is exploiting. They are claiming a religious exemption to the belief that Jahi is dead so that they can get all her bills paid by Medicaid, free to them but expensive to you and I! The family wants to continue all the free medical care and still move back to California lol can you imagine??????

The Columbia School of Law has some info here-- The Death Exemption: Jahi McMath & the Right to Life after Death | Public Rights Private Conscience Project

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Specializes in Critical Care.

It's very interesting to see the perspectives on here about her case. Most of the comments sections on news articles are... less than informed. Okay, they're a complete cesspool. This entire thing is disturbing. I feel bad and can relate to her family for the very obvious trauma they underwent in having her die after an operation that typically doesn't result in death, but I cannot relate to or have much compassion for the grotesque spectacle they have made of her. And, as a spiritual person, I do wonder where her "consciousness" is. Such a sad situation :(

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Specializes in ICU, LTACH, Internal Medicine.

It is kind of interesting question if she'd ever met "brain death" criteria, and, if so, which one.

"Persistent vegetative condition" and "minimal consciousness condition" are both, technically, NOT brain death, as the most of the brain (i.e. everything below the subcortical structures) can be alive and functioning, in different combinations. These people do not require vent support per se; most of them only need feeding tube in terms of life support. They are also not technically "comatose", as patients have wake-sleep cycles and some sort of reaction on surrounding. It is a huge medical and legal gray zone because as today there is really no reliable means to differentiate between automatic, reflex-driven reactions and subtle, poorly reproduced conscious responses, as well as defining "brain death" as opposing to "personality death". The proponents of "treatment to the end" are arguing quite rightfully that 1) there were indeed a few (well... VERY few) documented cases when patients eventually woke up, even with severe disability; and 2) even patients after years of PVC may have residual cortical activity on functional PET or MRI, therefore it cannot be postulated that they 110% feel/hear/think nothing, even with flat EEG, which is currently considered to be a "gold standard" of diagnosis.

When I started working in LTACH, I was shocked to see how common such situations really are. We have at least one just such patient on floor at any time, most of them supported either in respiratory-equipped facilities or at home for years. A few of them were legally pronounced dead more than once :wideyed:, yet they continue to "exist", coming to hospital from time to time because of yet another pneumonia/UTI/something else. 9 out of 10 of them are in great physical shape - no pressure ulcers, no contractures, well-nourished, even getting flu shots and dental care. Families are incredibly dedicated and in similarly incredible state of denial. I sort of understand them, because if patient automatically and randomly grabs anything that happen to touch a particular spot on his palm, it is kinda difficult to dissuade wishful thinking that "this is the way he talks with me". Since many of these patients have eye movements preserved to some extent and brainstem primitive oral automatisms intact (smiling, grimacing, smacking, rooting, etc), it is pretty useless to explain that in reality all these expressions mean nothing at all. These families grew into their own strange routines and try to preserve them literally to no end. One locally known couple takes a patient, who is PVC for over a decade, to college football games all over the country, insisting that he understands everything, etc. A few people paid $$$$$ cash to subject patients to functional MRI scan so to prove that they had brain activity. After they got results back with cortical metabolic activity of 25% or below (which, on plain English, means "cortical death" with very low, if any at all, chance to recovery of any degree), they exuberantly told everybody that patient is, indeed, OK and healthy because he had blood flow to the brain.

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Specializes in PICU.

[quote=KatieMI;8958238

By the picture, the vent is there but she had airway obstruction before, so she very well might be just on CPAP or something. She is probably getting better balanced nutrition now, sor her obvious obesity is gone. The tragic reality is that the poor girl is now probably healthier than she was before it all started. Her body is healthier, that is, because her soul is not here since December 2013.

With regards to the CPAP comment, she is most definitely currently trached. you can see in the picture tubing, plus, you can see that the vent is on in the picture

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It is kind of interesting question if she'd ever met "brain death" criteria, and, if so, which one.

Absolutely she did, which was why the state of California issued a death certificate.

Jahi met all legal criteria for brain death in California on two occasions, spaced appropriately as required by law and after all CNS depressants were gone from her system.

After her family went to court, they asked the court to appoint yet another independent physician to do a brain death determination on Jahi. They agreed to accept the diagnosis of the independent physician, though the physician chosen was not the physician they proposed (who was simply a pediatrician not licensed to practice in California, with no expertise in brain death, and who has a stated religious objection to the entire concept of brain death). Instead, Dr. Paul Fisher, Chief of Pediatric Neurology at Stanford Children's Health was appointed to review the prior testing and to do another round on her to make a final determination.

He did all relevant tests on Jahi, including the Apnea test, which she failed yet again. Additional tests, though not required for a legal determination, were done. These were EEG and radionuclide cerebral blood flow exam. This scan showed NO BLOOD FLOW whatsoever to Jahi's brain. EEG was flat again. Dr. Fisher confirmed with no hesitation that Jahi met the criteria for brain death.

The family rejected the diagnosis of this independent physician, who had no ties to the facility or to the family.

Dr. Fisher's report can be found here:

http://media.nbcbayarea.com/documents/Fisher+-+Redacted+Rpt_1.pdf

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Specializes in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology.
No tape over her eyes in this one. And is that a lip piercing?

It's her lip gloss.

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