WE noticed this article, about the girl who went in for a routine tonsillectomy and ended up on life support. This family has been criticized as publicity hounds for doing what any parent would do: Give their child every chance for life, as long as any scrap of hope remains.
The McMaths are fighting for life. On Monday, they won a court order that prevents Children's Hospital of Oakland from pulling the plug on Jahi until Jan. 7. Her relatives have been attacked as "publicity hounds" for doing everything possible to raise awareness about the young girl's tragic case. They've been criticized as troublemakers for challenging powerful hospital officials. They've been labeled "selfish" and ignorant because they are praying for a miracle.
Why, many observers ask, don't they just "accept reality" and let go?
As the mother of a 13-year-old girl, I would have done everything Jahi's mom has done to this point. Everything. Here's reality: Children's Hospital faces serious malpractice questions about its care of Jahi. Hospital execs have a glaring conflict of interest in wielding power over her life support. According to relatives, medical officials callously referred to Jahi as "dead, dead, dead" and dismissed the child as a "body."
The McMath family refused to be rushed or pushed around. They demanded respect for their loved one. I say more power to them.
There are plenty of reasons to question the medical establishment's handling of catastrophic cases involving brain injury and "brain death." In 2008, doctors were dead certain that 21-year-old Zack Dunlop was legally deceased after a horrible ATV accident. Tests showed there was no blood flow to his brain. His hospital issued a death notice. Authorities prepared to harvest his organs. But family members were not convinced. A cousin who happened to be a nurse tested Zack's reflexes on his own one last time as the hospital swooped in. The "brain dead" "body" responded. Forty-eight days later, the supposedly impossible happened: "Brain dead" Zack Dunlop walked out of the hospital and lived to tell about his miraculous recovery on the Today Show. (Continue reading...)
So who locally will be making the decision to pull our loved ones off of life support? God knows, there are plenty of reasons to have fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) when it comes to our health care these days. For example, what are the central planners cooking up here? Or here? Buzzwords like "Local Health Reform" and "Transforming Health Care in Whatcom County" leave us with a queasy feeling in the pit of our stomachs, especially with all the news events of 2013 under our belts. Transforming has become a dirty word, especially when we like our health care, and we want to keep our health care. On who's authority does anybody deem to transform it? And who the hell are these people, pray tell? In 2014, with a new panel of county council members, WE think it would be a good time, and very worthwhile to ask some probing questions.
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