Jahi McMath: Family Seeks to Have Brain-Death Ruling Overturned, Girl Declared Alive
Family hospital shops for one that will keep brain dead patient on life support.
On Jan. 3, the family and hospital agreed, through a compromise forged in court, that Jahi’s mother could remove her from the hospital as long as she took responsibility for the child’s care. As part of the agreement, the Alameda County Coroner’s Office issued a death certificate, allowing her to be released from the hospital on the condition that when her organs shut down, the family would have to notify the coroner and bring her body back to Oakland.
A request to amend Jahi’s death certificate could be a first for the county, and by law would have to amended by the state, according to Alameda County Counsel Donna Ziegler. The California Department of Public Health, which oversees vital records, allows death records to be amended — but only to correct spelling errors and add information that was not known at the time of death. Changes to the time, place and cause of death have to be performed by a physician or coroner.
Jahi left the Oakland hospital on Jan. 5. For three months, little was known about her whereabouts until reports emerged that the teen was taken to Saint Peter’s Children’s Hospital in New Brunswick, N.J. She likely went there because a 1991 state law gives patients and their families the right to reject a medical diagnosis of brain death on religious grounds and decide whether to continue organ support.