Jahi McMath's family seeks reversal of brain-death ruling

The family of a 13-year-old California girl—who was declared brain-dead 10 months ago following complications from sleep apnea surgery—is seeking an unprecedented court order declaring her “alive again.”

Chris Dolan, an attorney representing the family of Jahi McMath, showed reporters a video on Thursday that purportedly displayed evidence of brain activity. According to the San Jose Mercury-News, Jahi moved her hands and feet, apparently after commands from her mother, Nailah Winkfield.

“It shows she can rapidly respond to a command … it’s not a fluke,” Philip DeFina, chairman of the International Brain Research Foundation, told The Guardian.

The non-profit International Brain Research Foundation made its findings after running a series of tests on Jahi at Rutgers University last week. Dolan also showed an MRI scan indicating that a portion of her brain remains active. If the family persuades the Alameda County Superior Court to reverse its brain death finding, the state may have to cover the cost of keeping her on a ventilator.

“We want the court to reverse so we can restore this girl’s humanity,” Dolan told the Los Angeles Times. “The hospital has called her a corpse. Her name is Jahi, and she is alive.”

On Dec. 9, after what was supposed to be a routine procedure for sleep apnea, Jahi suffered a cardiac arrest at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in Oakland. When two tests indicated no cerebral activity, the court declared the teen brain-dead three days later and the county coroner signed her death certificate. Brain death is defined as total cessation of all brain neurological activity, including the brain stem.

But Jahi’s family rejected the finding, with relatives claiming she responded to her mother’s voice. Winkfield publicly shared her hope that God might “spark” Jahi’s brain back to life. In a headline-making twist of events, the family successfully fought to keep the life support machine turned on as Jahi’s mother pushed to keep her daughter’s organs functioning. According to The San Francisco Chronicle, Jahi was taken to a Roman Catholic hospital in New Jersey and kept on a ventilator at private expense. Her attorney reports that she and her parents moved to a house in New Jersey a month ago, where she remains on life support.

In addition to the video clip evidence Dolan showed reporters on Thursday, DeFina told ABC News that Jahi has responded to commands many other times: “There is a consistency to it.” He said an examination of Jahi revealed that her brain is still intact, rather than “liquefying,” as would be expected of a brain-dead body kept on life-support for many months, adding that brain scans showed electrical activity and other tests showed blood flowing to the brain.

According to Dolan, unless Jahi is declared alive again, a state hospital would “pull the plug” if she was admitted for any reason—meaning that “she’s in exile.” Earlier this week, Judge Evilio Grillo suggested in a case management conference that his court lacked the jurisdiction to hear new evidence in the case. He asked the Alameda County coroner and the California Department of Public Health to file statements in advance of a hearing slated for Oct. 9.

Sam Singer, spokesperson for the Oakland children’s hospital, accused the family’s attorney earlier this year of fueling false hope in Jahi’s case. “It’s really wrong and unethical for Mr. Dolan to mislead the family and the public that there’s any amount of hope or any food that could possibly bring back this deceased young woman,” he told ABC 7.

Arthur Caplan, head of medical ethics at New York University’s Langone Medical Center, said he knows of no cases of brain death determination being reversed. He cautioned that before any conclusions can be made, the data collected on Jahi must be examined by other researchers and experts in the field.

“Were this to be true, it would be an earth-shattering development in understanding death,” Caplan told ACB News. “They’re playing a high-stakes game.”