A court-appointed neurologist was scheduled to report his findings in a closed hearing Tuesday morning, but no matter the result of the tests, Jahi's family vowed to keep fighting to keep the girl breathing. The ruling Monday from Alameda County Superior Court Judge Evelio Grillo will likely allow the family to spend Christmas in the girl's room on the third floor of Children's Hospital Oakland. Above all else, the family wants "to give her more time," Jahi's mother, Nailah Winkfield, said. "Hopefully everything will work out in her favor, because I know my daughter wants to live. She enjoys life, and I know she wouldn't like somebody putting a time limit on her life."
The family's attorney, Christopher Dolan, said that "hope stays alive if she stays alive," adding that he was grateful "that this family won't be attending a funeral on Christmas." Grillo originally barred the hospital from taking the girl off the ventilator or ending her IV fluids before Monday. On Monday, Grillo appointed Dr. Paul Fisher, chief of pediatric neurology at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, to test Jahi's brain activity. Fisher will present his findings in a closed-court hearing at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday in downtown Oakland. The judge has not said when he will rule on whether the hospital can take the girl off the ventilator after his order expires.
Jahi underwent tonsil surgery to correct sleep apnea on Dec. 9; she began suffering complications including bleeding after the surgery, went into cardiac arrest and was declared brain dead Dec. 12. Since then, the family has been embroiled in a public battle with hospital administrators in a case that has gained national attention, at one point saying that the hospital's chief of pediatrics told them the girl needed to be taken off the ventilator "quickly." After the hearing Monday, Dr. David Durand, Children's Hospital Oakland's chief of pediatrics, spoke to the media for the first time and said that Jahi's condition was the result of a "very complex surgery. It was more complex than just a tonsillectomy." When pressed, Durand said he was unable to discuss the case any further. Hospital officials have repeatedly declined to discuss specifics of the case, citing medical privacy laws and asking the family's permission to release information.
The family also wants to bring in a second expert: Dr. Paul A. Byrne, neonatologist, pediatrician and clinical professor of pediatrics at the University of Toledo's College of Medicine, who has clashed with other physicians over the diagnosis of "brain dead." Byrne, a devout Catholic, has said that brain death is not true death, a belief that contrasts with the majority of the medical establishment. Both sides expressed satisfaction with Monday's ruling. Jahi's grandmother, Sandra Chatman, said it would allow Jahi's family to be "a little settled." "We're not totally satisfied," she said. "But we do feel like we are finally being heard, and that this is a step toward making sure that Jahi is still alive on Christmas, and that's been very important to us since the beginning of this whole thing."
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