13 Year old gir declared brain dead has now officially died

Now what is that the family should really consider are they keeping her alive for their own sake or is there actually any realistic chance of her improving. At what point is is selfish to keep someone on life support?

This case is complicated. The whole point of taking the body to New Jersey was because they have a law that allows a family to reject a brain death determination based on religious belief. With that, they're able to get medical care via Medicaid in New Jersey.

A lot of people believe that they're holding out long enough to get a reversal of the death certificate, bring the body back to California, and sue the hospital for considerably more than $250,000. They've made attempts to get the death certificate rescinded, although none seem to involve any mainstream doctors. They've been people who have never examined her, or ones who have a noted disagreement with the idea of "brain death".
 
I imagine her family will devote their lives to keeping her going in her current state, or whatever state she's in, if they can.

But I think it should be clarified, that she is not in a persistent vegetative state. .

I understand she isn't really in a vegetative state but I was lacking the proper words to really describe it other than using brain dead. I guess really my question is what the professionals have said would happen does not appear to have happened to this girl and its been 3 years. What if they were wrong? How can you keep a body going when the brain can't support it? We know she will never wake up but what if?
 
I understand she isn't really in a vegetative state but I was lacking the proper words to really describe it other than using brain dead. I guess really my question is what the professionals have said would happen does not appear to have happened to this girl and its been 3 years. What if they were wrong? How can you keep a body going when the brain can't support it? We know she will never wake up but what if?
I don't know if anyone really knows what condition her body is in. At least not outside the family and caregiver group. And I'm really not sure what happens when a brain liquefies. I doubt there are too many cases to compare this to, either. So I gues it's anyone's guess. Maybe someone with neurology experience knows more. As for the rest of her body, not sure what claims were made but if they take care of her, then apparently they can sustain it. It would involove a lot of care, though, as she would get bedsores and such if she wasn't turned and repositioned virtually constantly, every two hours round the clock. (Maybe she has them, we don't know, but from outward appearances, such as in that video above, it looks like she's getting good care.) She is likely getting a lot of medications to help sustain her functioning and treat her high blood sugars, etc.

There has been a judge (one or more, can't remember details now) that has been given ALL of the medical information and has made a determination that there is no evidence to support a reversal of the brain death decree, so that is what we have to go on. I would think that if there was evidence, a judge would want to give the benefit of the doubt. But that hasn't happened, over and over again. The heart is on a different nervous system, independent of the brain, and can continue to beat as long as it has oxygen. She is getting oxygen through a breathing tube, or ventilator.

In brain death, the expectation is that she will never wake up. This is an issue that people struggle with often when their loved ones are declared brain dead. Organ donor registries have a lot of information on it in order to help people understand it so they can have closure if and when it happens, and it happens a fair amount. (I've had it happen in my family twice now.) In most cases, the ventilator would've been turned off and eventually the heart would stop beating, and that would be it. It would likely happen in this case, too. Could it happen that she wakes up? Well I'm not going to be the one to say never, but I think the likelihood of it, by everything reported, seems to be essentially nil.
 




The Valentine's post says, "JAHI is taking breaths on her own and holding on to a pen with a tight grip, attempting to draw lines." I can't believe this! I send prayers to her family and friends, prayers they'll let her body go so she can rest in peace.
Exactly. She is doing all of this. But every picture is her with sunglasses on. Why? Maybe because it is beyond obvious that she is gone, when she isn't wearing sunglasses?
 
Ok what if she isn't deteriorating? What if her brain isn't liquifying? What if her body is just being maintained and she is in a vegatative state and will just never wake up. Everything the docs have said pointed to the fact that she would be a pile of goo by a few months after this all happened and that doesn't seem to be the case 3 years later. So now what?
It did not get a lot of publicity, but remember Terri Schiavo? After all the debate of whether or not she still had active brain function, autopsy after her death revealed her brain had congealed and just poured out of her skull.
 
Exactly. She is doing all of this. But every picture is her with sunglasses on. Why? Maybe because it is beyond obvious that she is gone, when she isn't wearing sunglasses?

I saw some pictures of her in the hospital bed with no glasses on. Her eyes are closed in them.

I can't imagine the heartache they are going through, but they need to let her go and let her rest in peace. Such a sad situation all around.
 
It did not get a lot of publicity, but remember Terri Schiavo? After all the debate of whether or not she still had active brain function, autopsy after her death revealed her brain had congealed and just poured out of her skull.

Do you have any links for that information? Everything I have found said Terri Schiavo's brain had withered to half it's size. If it were "congealed" she would not have had a brain stem and hence, no capability to breathe.....
 
Her skin is so waxy looking..not natural at all. A family friend or minister or whoever really needs to tell them to let it go. Of course, they probably all believe that a miracle will bring her back.
 
I feel so bad for her family. I can't even image what her poor family must be going through,heartbreaking all the way around.
 
I agree ^ I find it heartbreaking that the family are holding onto something that will never happen. I also find it heartbreaking that even in death some people don't get the dignity they deserve.

I hope I'm never in the same position, but if I am I hope I have some rational people in my support network to slap me upside the head rather than encouraging me to hold onto something that isn't going to happen.

Lastly, this is a gross waste of community and state resources that would be better spent elsewhere.
 
I agree ^ I find it heartbreaking that the family are holding onto something that will never happen. I also find it heartbreaking that even in death some people don't get the dignity they deserve.

I hope I'm never in the same position, but if I am I hope I have some rational people in my support network to slap me upside the head rather than encouraging me to hold onto something that isn't going to happen.

Lastly, this is a gross waste of community and state resources that would be better spent elsewhere.
I think they're off of government aid for this. I remember reading that they get enough in donations to pay for her home care because the funds for the hospital dried up and they had to leave.

I could be totally wrong and can't even begin to remember where I saw it
 
Do you have any links for that information? Everything I have found said Terri Schiavo's brain had withered to half it's size. If it were "congealed" she would not have had a brain stem and hence, no capability to breathe.....

It didn't actually congeal or turn to mush. It just progressively shrank over time and the space got filled up with fluid. That may not be congealing, but it's more like a common misunderstanding that a nonfunctioning part of a brain turns to mush. From what I recall about that case was that the autopsy indicated that there could not have been any voluntary brain function.
 

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