OAKLAND, Calif. — The family of a 13-year-old girl says they tried to persuade doctors to do another test and keep her on life support Monday night, as they deal with her condition and seek answers to what happened after a routine procedure went terribly wrong.
For days, family and friends have rallied outside Children’s Hospital Oakland to support Jahi McMath who was declared brain-dead after a surgery to have her tonsils removed.
The teen’s mother says doctors told her she would be removed from life support on Tuesday, but she and others in the family continue to try to persuade them to wait.
“They are telling me straight up the coroner is coming to get her. And I went in there and cried to this man and I said just check her brain one more time. I asked him, ‘Do you have children?’ and he said yeah, and I said, ‘Well you should know how it feels.’ I won’t give up on my daughter,” said Nailah Winkfield, Jahi’s mother.
Family members say McMath experienced complications from what was supposed to be a routine procedure and went into cardiac arrest days after surgery .
“My daughter drowned on her own blood,” Nailah said. “And I’m still going to fight to keep her on, but they are just not compassionate. My daughter is a bedspace. They need to get her out of there, so they can move the next person’s child in there and kill them, too.”
A hospital spokesperson wouldn’t comment on the specifics of this case, but she said the hospital is reviewing the case closely.