<p>So the stay was entered to preserve the status quo in order to allow family to pursue their federal lawsuit?</p>
<p>Jym – I think race came up because someone posted an article a few pages back showing that black families have some significant reason to distrust the medical system since it has often not treated blacks fairly. (For example, the syphilis experiments, or the lesser level of treatment for blacks vs. whites with the same diagnosis.)</p>
<p>EMM, the state court couldn’t undercut the federal.</p>
<p>Henrietta Lacks. </p>
<p>Look her up if you do not know who she was.</p>
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<p>What if a someone “broke into” an ICU and started shooting, hitting a ventilated brain dead person (waiting for family members to arrive to say their goodbyes) in the heart thus stopping it from beating. Would they be charged with murder?</p>
<p>To clarify - The question of race came up in regards to whether this family might have had some sort of cultural communication problem at the hospital. A reasonable concern I suppose but wildly misguided imho if you are at all familiar with the city of Oakland, CA. I personally don’t think race is a factor in all of this in any way apart from public opinion. There it very well could come into play. I agree. But really, this has become inexplicable.</p>
<p>Everything is conjecture at this point. Most families wouldn’t be fighting this very sad, very public battle one month after a brain death diagnosis.</p>
<p>Good background piece on the attorney:</p>
<p>[Jahi</a> McMath: Streetfighting lawyer takes heat, death threats for brain-dead Oakland girl’s family - San Jose Mercury News](<a href=“Jahi McMath: Streetfighting lawyer takes heat, death threats for brain-dead Oakland girl’s family – The Mercury News”>Jahi McMath: Streetfighting lawyer takes heat, death threats for brain-dead Oakland girl’s family – The Mercury News)</p>
<p>Do we believe this?</p>
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<p>I thought a wrongful death case was capped at $250,000?</p>
<p>And this is apparently where we are headed:</p>
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<p>[Jahi</a> McMath’s lawyer thinks families, not doctors, should determine death - latimes.com](<a href=“Jahi McMath's lawyer thinks families, not doctors, should determine death”>Jahi McMath's lawyer thinks families, not doctors, should determine death)</p>
<p>What a can of worms this has become.</p>
<p>“After the hospital had complied with the relevant legal requirements for determining brain death, what were the grounds on which the stay was granted? Maintaining the status quo?” </p>
<p>Compassion? It was granted initially until after Christmas. Time? Hoping they would come to acceptance. And, there was the falling through of several promised facilities that agreed to take her thrown in there although at that point she had already been declared dead. It’s very confusing.</p>
<p>About 15 family members actually spent Christmas in a waiting room and in Jahi’s room, 15 days after she was declared dead. She was given presents, the family played games. I can’t imagine the effect on staff and other families there and also potential long term effects on her siblings. This went way beyond the usual accommodation a family would be given for having their loved one moved from the hospital after death has been determined. The whole thing really is surreal.</p>
<p>If Stephen King had written this as a novel (and it is beginning to sound just like one of his.) critics would skewer the plot as unbelievable, even in the horror genre. </p>
<p>Also, at what point does the treatment of this poor girl’s brain dead body become desecration in a legal sense? Can a family’s religious belief allow them to maintain a beating heart in a dead body until the body decomposes?</p>
<p>What if Jahi’s heart stopped beating and the family demanded the hospital (well in this case the caregivers?) to continue CPR. When would it be OK to stop if their religious beliefs said they must do all that is humanely possible to keep “the person” alive?</p>
<p>Actually, eastcoastcrazy, sad to say, it reminds me of an old Rod Serling Night Gallery episode (with Desi Arnaz Jr and EG Marshall) that I saw a few months ago that gave me the creeps. A funeral director (Marshall) throwing a birthday party and putting party hats on corpses. This situation has gotten incredibly creepy and I agree, it is bordering on abuse of a corpse.</p>
<p>Why are no public health agencies or some authority agency somewhere concerned about this situation. She was knowingly hauled off in an ambulance while “dead” in the official sense, anyway. I mean, if my thankfully live teenager disappears for a while I cannot just say I’m hiding him at an undisclosed location. Someone will start asking questions. I hope. This craziness is not a secret and the lawyer’s self-serving articles are really quite transparent. We know, he’s a hero. (sarcasm)</p>
<p>actingmt; in your post # 1567; what are you saying? What are you responding to?</p>
<p>"#1569: “Nice find”? What does that mean?</p>
<p>“I think actingmt was just sharing that the division head of the PICU is a black female physician.”</p>
<p>Okay. I see. I think. Glad that’s not me. I recently shared my picture online for the first time in almost 20 years. I wonder why so few of the CHO docs have.</p>
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<li>Wait. What?</li>
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<p>Sorry, I meant Christmas was 13 days after she was declared dead, not 15. I wonder too how they are getting around an autopsy , potential public health issues too, Flossy. If you look at Dolan’s bio, he has won lots of awards , some in voting from fellow lawyers. I wonder what his colleagues think of all this. Certainly lots of them have seen the medical info about brain death, decomposition. And yet their esteemed colleague is insisting this child is alive.</p>
<p>I wish this family would put Jahi to rest.</p>
<p>Apologies if this has been brought up before, but there was a similar case in 2008. Twelve-year-old Motl Brody was pronounced brain dead after having a brain tumor, but his parents insisted he was still alive and must be kept on a ventilator. The parents sued to keep him on a ventilator, but the case was never resolved, as he died (while still on a ventilator) before the case finished.</p>
<p>Interestingly, Motl’s parents reportedly didn’t believe their son would recover. They thought he was terminally ill but not dead.</p>
<p>[Mordechai</a> Dov Brody - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordechai_Dov_Brody]Mordechai”>Mordechai Dov Brody - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>This situation lends itself to gallows humor…sounds like a zombie movie plot.</p>
<p>Technology allows us to do things, doesn’t mean we should do said things…</p>
<p>Sorry, zoosermom, but now I’m really confused. Unless I misunderstand the legal situation, I misspoke; the second California state court order was not a stay. It was instead an extension of an affirmative prohibition on the cessation of life support. Once all California state requirements had been satisfied, I don’t see the legal basis for the extension If such an extension was needed in order to allow the federal suit to move forward, it seems to me that it should have been up to the federal court itself to issue a TRO or some similar order.</p>
<p>What am I missing?</p>