Jahi McMath, an update

Going off memory again, without the help of Google, it was a hospital worker that anonymously leaked information.

I work as a critical care nurse in an ICU and that certainly does not look to me like someone who has been on a ventilator with a tracheostomy for two years. One of the biggest complaints we get from family members (and patients too) is that they are hungry/thirsty. People do not understand that eating or drinking can be dangerous or even deadly in certain situations. I can't tell you the number of times I have been yelled at by a family member, "They haven't eaten in TWO DAYS!"
I have no idea if the cheeseburger story is true or not, but sadly patients family members trying to sneak them food or drink is quite common. We had a patient who had a tracheostomy who complained about being thirsty but it wasn't safe yet for them to drink. Someone in her family decided to disconnect the ventilator and pour Pepsi down her traceostomy tube because "she was thirsty and wanted it". This meant they were pouring Pepsi directly into her lungs. Luckily they didn't get too far because alarms went off when the ventilator was disconnected. I wish I was exaggerating this story but I'm not. People are ridiculous.

They have to be Photoshopping or tons of make up and filters.

That was my reaction reading this too 

^^^ I had to look that up (PEG), and that, too, is

according to Google, PEG is the tube that's placed right into your stomach-- apparently that person didn't understand that chewing your food before it gets to your stomach is important to it digesting properly...  ? ? ?

I really cannot imagine what it must be like to be one of her siblings.

This entire story is so sad.

I am also local to this story and paid very close attention to all of the interviews and legal issues. When the Uncle was being interviewed on TV with the grandmother by his side, he stated that one minute Jahi was laughing and smiling and eating a cheeseburger that the family had promised that she could have after surgery and the next minute she went into cardiac arrest. He said, how do you explain this about a 13-year old girl? This was just a routine tonsillectomy.

Nothing about this surgery was routine. She had a tonsillectomy, adenoidectomy, something done with her sinuses and I can't think of the name of the other thing that they remove to help with sleep apnea.

The doctor told the mother months before that he did not want to perform such a large amount of procedures, that he wanted to split them into two surgeries.

The mom argued with the doctor that she wanted all of them done at once. She couldn't take more time off of work. The grandmother was an LVN at another hospital. It is believed that the grandmother suctioned her throat and caused the issues.

DD had a horrible terrifying aftermath to her tonsillectomy. No chips, no crunchy food, nothing. She refused to eat and had little besides water and Popsicles. Until she began to hemmorage. She bled and bled and bled. It turned out there was an uncauterized spot in her throat. On our third frantic trip to the ER I thought she would bleed to death. I have never been so terrified. You can't imagine how much blood can come from a child's throat.

OMG!  I think I gasped hard enough that I sucked fluid into MY lungs. 
Holy crap people can be stupid!

When my son suffered a TBI and had a ventilator with a tracheostomy and a PEG, his hair-brained aunt decided to feed him a Snickers bar.  He almost choked to death.  It's been almost 20 years and I still get steamed when I think about it.

I know it's really hard to see a loved one suffering, especially when all they want is the most basic thing - food.  But food in certain medical situations can harm and even kill.  When DH was in the hospital with pancreatitis, he went 6 days with no food or water.  He would BEG me for water but I could not give it to him, no matter how badly I wanted to.  

I feel horrible for Jahi and her family, but they played - it seems - a big part in what happened to her by ignoring the doctor's instruction.  I hope someday they can make peace with that and let her go.

L

In California an award for medical negligence is capped at $250,000 if the patient died due to the negligence.

If the patient is alive there is no compensation cap.

Assuming the cheeseburger story is true, the family was the direct cause of the bleed that caused her to go into cardiac arrest. As long as Jahi is "alive" the family can sue for unlimited amounts of compensation. 

This is a sad story. 

I do not know what kind of publicity and support they are getting regularly now, but at the time, I thought part of the reason they couldn't let her go was because, as long as they were arguing that she was alive and refusing to terminate medical treatment, they were getting a lot of attention from religious communities, particular kinds of pro-life activists, etc.  I think it is easy to blame the money (and I cannot discount the possibility that money is a driving force or the driving force here), but let's think about it -- if they had let her go when she was declared brain dead, the only people who would have noticed or cared were the handful of people in her family, but, by saying no, they got nationwide attention, prayer, etc.