by MEGAN ROMANCZUK Section Editor
Jahi McMath, a 13-year-old girl who went into cardiac arrest after having surgery and was then announced brain dead on December 9, is the subject of a battle between moral and legal obligation.
McMath was having surgery to take out her tonsils, adenoid, and uvula along with structures in her throat and nose to control her sleep apnea, which causes difficulty in sleeping, as well as breathing.
Before she was officially announced dead, three doctors did tests on the little girl which showed that she had no blood flow, along with serious damages in her brain.
The McMath family has argued with the hospital many times to keep their beloved daughter on life support; however, the hospital has refused since she is legally dead. The hospital also denied putting her on a breathing or food tube for transportation due to the fact that they would be wasting their materials on a dead person.
The issue of keeping the young girl on a ventilator escalated so quickly that it was brought to court. Surprisingly, the judge allowed the Children’s Hospital to keep her hooked up until January 7 at 5 p.m.
Besides the judge approving of the ventilators, the court also announced that McMath is officially dead, as well as ordering the creation of a death certificate for the date of December 12.
“I couldn’t imagine what it must feel like to lose a child and have to suffer with the sadness for the rest of your life,” says senior Johnny Sykes.
Now since McMath’s life support reached its final rounds, the family relocated to a private location that would be the right fit for their daughter. McMath was taken in a private ambulance, as well as hooked up to a ventilator that does not have a food tube.
The family has received $55,000 in private donations to cover hospital bills and moving to a new location.
Not only is keeping the child on life support an issue, but her body is having a tough time maintaining the correct temperature in order to survive.
Her body is rapidly deteriorating – losing elasticity in her skin, her muscles are starting to contract, and blood pressure spiked high, but slowly went down.
Her family still has high hopes that she will magically heal and come back to life. They are even claiming to have heard her voice, as well as saying the food tubes are helping her “heal”.
“I’m indifferent about keeping a dead person on support because maybe since she was young they wanted to spend more time with her. But the fact that they moved to a different location to spend more money on getting more treatments, now that’s insane”, says senior Colleen Gerndt.
Up until now, the family is trying to lay low about their daughter’s condition, as well as keeping information about her “healing” process among close family and friends.
Should the McMath family accept reality and take their daughter off life support?
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