Jahi McMath Case: Mother of Brain Dead Oakland Teen Says Daughter's Still Alive

The mother of a 13-year-old Oakland girl who was declared brain dead last December said on Friday that she’s convinced that her daughter is still very much alive. Speaking at a crowded news conference today at the San Francisco office of the family’s attorney, Christopher Dolan, Nailah Winkfield said Jahi McMath “can’t be brain dead” because her daughter responds to her commands.

Winkfield said, “I communicate with Jahi through her head movement and that’s how I know she’s awake.” In advance of a court hearing on Thursday when the family will ask Alameda County Superior Court Judge Evelio Grillo to issue an order saying that Jahi is still alive, Dolan played two short videos that show Jahi moving her limbs in response to her mother’s requests.

Grillo ruled last December that there was clear and convincing evidence that Jahi was brain dead. Jahi, an eighth-grade student at E.C. Reems Academy of Technology and Arts in Oakland, went to UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland last Dec. 9 for a tonsillectomy procedure that was intended to cure a sleep apnea problem that had made it difficult for her to sleep.

Related: Jahi McMath Case: Brain-Dead Girl Arrives At New Facility

However, she suffered complications after the procedure and doctors declared her brain dead on Dec. 12. Jahi’s family filed suit asking for a court order that would require the hospital to keep her on life support. On Jan. 3, the family and the hospital agreed on a compromise that allowed Winkfield to remove Jahi from the hospital as long as she took responsibility for the child’s care.

As part of the agreement, the Alameda County coroner’s bureau issued a death certificate allowing Jahi to be released from the hospital on the condition that when her organs shut down the family would have to notify the coroner and bring her body back to Oakland. Dolan said today that Jahi has been receiving medical care for the past nine months at a facility in New Jersey but declined to provide specifics.

Dolan said the videos he played today were recorded recently at the New Jersey facility. In one of the videos, Jahi moved her right foot after her mother asked her to do so. In response, Winkfield said in the video, “Very good, Jahi. I’m proud of you.” In the other video, Jahi moved her right hand. In both videos, Jahi’s eyes were closed.

Winkfield said at the news conference today that earlier this year Jahi was only responsive between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m. but recently she’s been “more responsive throughout the day.” Winkfield said, “She knows the difference between left and right.” Dolan said, “Jahi has profound brain damage, no doubt” but she’s not brain dead and there’s a huge distinction between the two conditions. Dolan said newly developed evidence, including MRI films and EEG tests, show that Jahi has brain activity and is not brain dead.

The attorney said, “People have been very critical of Jahi’s family and me by saying we’re pulling a hoax but we’re not.” Dolan said, “Everything has been documented and videotaped. This is not a ruse, this is the truth.” After holding an initial hearing on the matter on Tuesday, Grillo wrote in an order that the general rule is that a court loses jurisdiction over a case once it enters its final judgment and he issued his final judgment in Jahi’s matter on Jan. 17. Grillo also said his tentative thinking is that “the issue is not presented properly in this case.”

—By Bay City News