After reading all the discussion of the family wanting to find another facility to take Jahi and keep her on life support, I am totally puzzled.
I can, on some level, deal with the intense belief of the family that Jahi is still with them. However, once they contacted an attorney to represent their case to keep her on life support, the media was continuously blasted with reports, a Facebook page was established to espouse the cause and raise money.
The family, from the get-go have taken an extremely adversarial position to anything the hospital has done or said. They have refused to allow the hospital to comment on Jahi's case in terms of her medical condition and treatment from the moment she walked in the door. Her doctors cannot ethically discuss why she had the surgery.
We only know their side of the story, which is fraught with their own emotions and the opinions of their attorney, family members, and a fanatical doctor who does not believe in brain death.
Even if another institution were to accept a brain dead person for the maintenance she would need to keep breathing, why would they want to? First, there is the ethical component. That's been discussed in depth here. Then, based on the direction the family is going, there are litigious issues as well. It's overly obvious that the family wants to sue the hospital for malpractice. What would stop them from doing the same with another institution willing to take her on? If she were to "die" there, would they be sued for malpractice for their neglect?
Also, you have to know that the hospital's insurer will probably want to settle the case quietly out of court. It would probably be much less expensive to do that then to go through a circus trial.
Medical complications do occur after surgery and many times, it leads to death. It's unfortunate fact, it's reality.
My father died in 1954 at the age of 34. He'd had surgery to repair a hole in his heart. It was very dangerous back in the days before open-heart surgery. He died when he aspirated. There was no lawsuit. My mother knew that the operation was a last-ditch attempt to keep him alive and something bad happened. His surgery had gone just fine, the surgeon did a fantastic job. I'm sure that, since Jahi seemed to be fine immediately after the surgery, everything went fine. Then, something bad happened.
In this case, there will be litigation against the hospital. There is a good chance it is too late for the ME to determine exactly what happened. Even so, the doctors will not have the chance to defend themselves because the insurance company would prefer to put up the cash rather than to try the case in open court.
A friend who is a retired pediatrician was sued once by the parents of a child who had died of a condition that was never diagnosed. My friend wanted to fight in court to keep his reputation. He had all the documentation and could show that, in his work-up, he had seen no signs of the condition. The insurance company didn't allow him to do that. They settled, he retired in disgust.
Sorry for the long post, but this case brings back so many sad memories. But at least we grieved at our loss and eventually moved on with our lives and good memories. We didn't have to add tremendous anger to that pain.
lease: