The Story of Jahi Continues

scaredsilly, BSN, RN · Jan 11, 2015

Tenebrae, Great post!

In the US, ICU is the same, there has to be potential for some sort of recovery. Some LTCs will take vent patients, and some patients on vents are cared for at home. No insurer will pay for Jahi's care because a death certificate has been issued. If she were alive, I think her care would be be paid indefinitely by the government. The reason her family wanted her declared alive was to get her care paid for. NJ is (I think) the only state that will allow a dead person to linger on life support like this. The rest of the country would have mandated a more dignified death a year a ago.

Gooselady, BSN, RN · Jan 17, 2015

EsmeRN said: (snipped)

I am also willing to bet that somewhere in the beginning someone from the hospital staff (resident/MD/nurse) discussed this in a less than apologetic attitude and communications shut off from that point.
It might be guilt for there have been reports that they gave her a hamburger and that the grandmother was blindly suctioning her throat.

Oh for God's sake NO!!

I think nurses out of frustration for poor Jahi are trying to cope with these feelings by lashing out at the family for they truly are the masters of this show right now. I also think that being a little frank if not harsh, helps us deal with our feelings at the sad outcome for this little girl.

Understood. I can relate in some ways to it. I was taken aback by the harshness and zilch amount of compassion and wondered why.

I hope this DOES impact the whole concept of DNR and withdrawal of care -- only because we ought not to get too institutionalized and rigid in our approach. I hope science and the medical profession in general will remain open-minded to the extent that they are 'always learning more'. We need that dialogue to go back and forth with each side pulling against the other, checking each other so neither side gets extremist and therefore 'institutionalized'. Thank you for your thoughtful reply to ME, I somehow missed it and am glad I checked.

Gooselady, BSN, RN · Jan 17, 2015

Tenebrae, Great post!
In the US, ICU is the same, there has to be potential for some sort of recovery. Some LTCs will take vent patients, and some patients on vents are cared for at home. No insurer will pay for Jahi's care because a death certificate has been issued. If she were alive, I think her care would be be paid indefinitely by the government. The reason her family wanted her declared alive was to get her care paid for. NJ is (I think) the only state that will allow a dead person to linger on life support like this. The rest of the country would have mandated a more dignified death a year a ago.

Jahi's family would have to be in the same income bracket as the Koch brothers in order to fund Jahi's care without state Medicare/MediCal. Since 90% of us are grim about paying our copays and deductables, I can't blame Jahi's family for petitioning the California court to reverse her death certificate. I mean, really? The kid is here whether we think she should be or not.

But I can see how the natural consequence of Jahi's family's behavior would be well served in them having to stay in New Jersey. The want to go back home, but so do about a billion other human beings right now, who can't do it either.

scaredsilly, BSN, RN · Jan 17, 2015

Jahi's family would have to be in the same income bracket as the Koch brothers in order to fund Jahi's care without state Medicare/MediCal. Since 90% of us are grim about paying our copays and deductables, I can't blame Jahi's family for petitioning the California court to reverse her death certificate. I mean, really? The kid is here whether we think she should be or not.
But I can see how the natural consequence of Jahi's family's behavior would be well served in them having to stay in New Jersey. The want to go back home, but so do about a billion other human beings right now, who can't do it either.

You are correct in that Jahi's family can't possibly afford this care, and no insurer in NJ is paying for it either. I think that the reason that they are in a private home instead of an ICU now is because no facility was going to treat her for free for very long. However you cannot just have someone declared alive because you feel like it! The poor girl is dead and any court that will allow this charade to continue just so that they can get medical care paid for would be setting a precedent that would take decades to reverse (if in fact it could be reversed at all). The family wants her declared alive because they want to gain millions on the lawsuit instead of the 250k cap that California has if a child dies due to medical malpractice. They are looking at this as a way to get very rich very fast. That can be their only possible motivation

All of us are going to die, if insurers were forced to pay scads of money to keep us artificially alive for as long as our family wanted us to be above ground, then the economy of the world would completely crumble in a very short time.

amoLucia · Jan 18, 2015

Anybody know if there's a court-appointed guardian for Jahi? Someone neutral to watch out for this child? Even with natural parents (ie her mother) avail, guardians do get appointed. I haven't been following THAT closely to know the answer.

NurseQT · Jan 18, 2015

I have wondered that same thing AmoLucia.. My guess is there is no GAL because Jahi is legally dead. Sad there was no GAL appointed before the courts ruled that she was dead.

JustBeachyNurse, LPN · Jan 18, 2015

Anybody know if there's a court-appointed guardian for Jahi? Someone neutral to watch out for this child? Even with natural parents (ie her mother) avail, guardians do get appointed. I haven't been following THAT closely to know the answer.

Not with a death certificate no matter what fantastic claims of what amounts to reanimation of a corpse as claimed by DeFina the psychologist at IBRF. (Who may drop her case as he's only raised $175 of $500K he "needs" to cure brain death.

Honestly I'm surprised one wasn't appointed to secure her best interested in December 2013 as her uncle only saw dollar signs and mom was clearly distraught and in denial about the tragic outcome.

caliotter3 · Jan 18, 2015

For those who might be interested in donating to four sad little ones, look for the gofundme account relating to the quads of Erica Morales or her husband Carlos Morales. Erica passed away after an emergency c section for her four babies, born two months premature. Info on the major news sources.

scaredsilly, BSN, RN · Jan 18, 2015

They don't appoint guardians for corpses, however when the courts allowed the family to move her body, they made the mother accept legal responsibility for the body. I also wondered why they didn't appoint a guardian before she died, but I think it all went too fast. She was already declared dead by the time the family filed with the courts so it was too late.

I read that story about the quadruplets, Caliotter, thanks for that post!

Horseshoe, BSN, RN · Jan 18, 2015

They don't appoint guardians for corpses, however when the courts allowed the family to move her body, they made the mother accept legal responsibility for the body.

Yeah, I think the court kind of saw into the future on that whole deal. Smart of them to put in that condition.

ebrooks1013 · Jan 19, 2015

What about the man who everybody claimed was gone? He was considered gone for many years and they bathed him and kept him comfortable all the while he claimed he was alert, just trapped inside his body. The book is called ghost boy.

Horseshoe, BSN, RN · Jan 19, 2015

What about the man who everybody claimed was gone? He was considered gone for many years and they bathed him and kept him comfortable all the while he claimed he was alert, just trapped inside his body. The book is called ghost boy.

Was he documented to be BRAIN DEAD? No, he absolutely was not. He was in a coma, or PVS. People have been known to "wake up" from those conditions. Not possible with brain death. These comparisons are not apples to apples.