Remember Jahi McMath? After entering UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in Oakland in December 2013 for a routine tonsillectomy to correct her sleep apnea, the then 13-year-old McMath went into cardiac arrest and sustained massive, irreversible brain injuries.
Now the family is showing more pictures and evidence that she is alive and well.
Let’s take a look back. According to court documents, McMath was admitted to Children’s Hospital Oakland to have an adenotonsillectomy, uvulopalatopharyngoplasty and submucous resection of bilateral inferior turbinates performed. It was hoped these procedures would provide improved airflow during her sleep at night. The hospital described these procedures as complicated. The family described the surgery as a routine tonsillectomy in media reports.
After the initial surgeries were performed, McMath was conscious and according to her mother Latasha “Nailah” Winkfield, asked for a Popsicle while in the recovery room.
On December 9, 2013, McMath suffered massive blood loss and consequent cardiac arrest. According to McMath’s doctors at Children’s Hospital Oakland, the loss of blood circulation caused whole brain death. On December 12, 2013, her doctors declared her brain-dead. Her family was informed that she was legally dead, and that as a result, life support systems would be discontinued. Her family refused to accept the medical declaration of death by neurological criteria, said that McMath was not dead, and initiated legal proceedings in an effort to require the hospital to continue treatment.
Her family won a high-profile legal battle to keep their daughter’s life support machine turned on in 2014, despite a coroner issuing her death certificate.
READ: ‘Brain Dead’ Jahi McMath Responds To Verbal Commands
She was released into the care of her mother Nailah Winkfield and other family members who agreed to be “wholly and exclusively responsible” for the teenager.
In a new update on Facebook, Ms Winkfield said her daughter was doing well.
“Jahi as healthy and beautiful as ever, proving the naysayers wrong,” she wrote. “A fighter, a warrior, a blessed child, Gods got your back little girl, keep fighting.’.
“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,” she wrote.
McMath’s family is currently in a legal battle and 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.
To learn the difference between being in a coma and brain dead, click here.
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