Jahi McMath hearing postponed after doctor’s determination

A Thursday court hearing to decide whether Jahi McMath will be declared “alive again” was postponed after her family said their “team of international brain death experts” needs more time to review a letter from the court-appointed doctor reaffirming his belief that the 13-year-old Oakland girl is brain dead.

Jahi was declared brain dead after suffering what doctors said were terminal complications from surgery for sleep apnea at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland in December.

Her family rejected the determination, and challenged it in Alameda County Superior court, where they lost. But last week, family attorney Christopher Dolan released video that he said shows Jahi moving her feet and hands at her mother’s request. The video, he said — along with sworn declarations from five doctors who specialize in brain death and injury and who belive Jahi is not brain dead — all bolster the family’s request that the court overturn its initial ruling that Jahi is brain dead.

The doctor who initially examined Jahi, however, said nothing in the video or the sworn declarations changed his mind.

Stanford University’s Paul Graham Fisher, a pediatric neurologist who last year examined Jahi as a court-appointed independent expert, wrote in a letter to Judge Evelio Grillo that the doctors used standards and tests that are irrelevant.

“Overall, none of the current materials presented in the declarations refute my (Dec. 23) examination and consultation finding ... or those of several prior attending physicians who completed the same exams, that Jahi McMath met all criteria for brain death,” he wrote. “None of the declarations provide evidence that Jahi McMath is not brain dead.”

Fisher noted that he is not being paid for his opinion, has no connection to Children’s Hospital and continues “to extend my sympathies to the family and friends of Jahi McMath.”

Dolan, who claims Fisher has a conflict of interest and legal bias, said in a written statement that he asked to reschedule Thursday’s hearing in order to “address any concerns that Dr. Fisher has in an effort to demonstrate that, with an open and transparent dialogue between health care professionals, only one conclusion can remain: that Jahi McMath is not brain dead.”

He asked the court to let “all of the doctors” sit down and review the evidence together.

“I can understand what a difficult place Dr. Fisher finds himself in as he is the doctor who originally diagnosed Jahi as brain dead,” Dolan said. “We are not seeking to fault Dr. Fisher’s original exam. Experts say that Jahi’s brain swelling would have given the impression of brain death at that time. What we do want to do is to bring all the evidence forward to be looked at critically, and not defensively, as this is an important medical and legal debate which goes far beyond Jahi.”

If the court were to reverse its findings, Jahi could return from New Jersey, where she is being cared for by her family, and her costs for care could be shifted to the state of California or possibly to Children’s Hospital.