Jahi Mcmath, the Oakland girl who was declared brain dead after having her tonsils removed, has passed away a family member confirms. Jahi died on June 22 after undergoing surgery in New Jersey.
Jahi was declared brain dead and on life support after undergoing a complex tonsillectomy and noasal surgery at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital on Dec. 9, 2013. While recovering from the surgery, Jahi complained of throat pain and her throat incision began to hemorrhage.
She was rushed back into surgery but she never regained consciousness after suffering irreversible brain damage from a lack of oxygen.
Doctors declared Jahi brain dead in December 2013 and the decision was made to remove Jahi from life support.
Jahi’s mother, Nailah Winkfield, launched a media campaign to force the hospital to keep Jahi on life support, but the hospital administration took Winkfield to court, where a judge upheld the hospital’s decision.
Winkfield was given custody of Jahi’s body and she transferred Jahi to a facility on the East Coast that specializes in warehousing brain dead patients.
Winkfeild created a Jahi McMath Facebook path and she continued to hold onto hope that hr daughter would one day open her eyes.
“Jahi wasn’t brain dead or any kind of dead,” Winkfield said at the time. “She was a girl with a brain injury and she deserved to be cared for like any other child who had a brain injury.”
