Family wants to keep life support for girl brain dead after tonsil surgery #8

[Elphaba]

Ugh Why? This is apples and oranges. :banghead:

Because it is the Brainwashington Times… apples and oranges commentary is their way of muddying up reality. (others call it the Moonie Times because it was founded by the late Rev. Moon)

 

[K_Z]

You're most welcome. No, the hospital does not need to be found guilty for the medmal case to settle. A complaint doesn't even need to be filed. The insurers of the hospital, docs and nurses will evaluate it in business terms and decide whether and how much they're willing to settle for, if at all, given the costs of litigation, the likelihood of a substantial verdict in plaintiff's favor and the facts of the particular case. jmo

If it settles, how much do you think it will settle for?

Jahi is deceased, so lifelong prospective care is not an issue. Just costs, plus the $250K cap?

 

[Karmady]

If it settles, how much do you think it will settle for?

Jahi is deceased, so lifelong prospective care is not an issue. Just costs, plus the $250K cap?

I think my original estimate was $3-5M. I'll stick with that just because I don't think the family will take less than that. The hammer will be the potential of a ruling that the cap is unconstitutional. Both the hospital and the insurer will care about that. jmo

 

[popsicle]

Remember this good article?

Meghan Daum ‏@meghan_daum 17h
This week's column: The time for subtlety and "balance" in the #JahiMcMath saga is OVER.
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/comm...media-20140116,0,4738876.column#axzz2qZIfXkaw …

Uncle didn't like it:

Omari ‏@_iamOMARI 8h
@meghan_daum Your article was both insensitive & cruel. I pray you never experience what my family & I endured.

 

[Softail]

Remember this good article?

Meghan Daum ‏@meghan_daum 17h
This week's column: The time for subtlety and "balance" in the #JahiMcMath saga is OVER.
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/comm...media-20140116,0,4738876.column#axzz2qZIfXkaw …

Uncle didn't like it:

Omari ‏@_iamOMARI 8h
@meghan_daum Your article was both insensitive & cruel. I pray you never experience what my family & I endured.

Hmmmm... :waitasec: EndureED. Interesting choice of words. I hope this somehow means that they have come to their senses, and during this silence laid Jahi to rest. :twocents:

 

[Quester]

Re: CHO nurse/s on duty during crisis, TIA …

1. How many CHO nurses typically would have been right there/nearby in the PICU?

[If PICU had 1:1 ratio and JM was in room 10, can we assume there were
at least 10 nurses in the immediate area? 20 nurses if rooms were double occupancy?]
​

2. If nurse/s was/were on a shift change, as stated by the JM family, at the time of the crisis
wouldn’t that mean there would have been two nurses right there or nearby as one would have been
updating the other about the status of the patient in that 1 nurse to 1 patient ratio area?

 

[Karmady]

Hmmmm... :waitasec: EndureED. Interesting choice of words. I hope this somehow means that they have come to their senses, and during this silence laid Jahi to rest. :twocents:

Unfortunately, I think he means until the family was liberated from the CHO's diabolical clutches :facepalm:

 

[nrdsb4]

Well, and I say this kind of reluctantly, I was actually on the side of Terri Schivao's parents in that case. Not because I thought she was going to rise up and be herself again, just that her parents wanted to have the keeping of her and her husband had clearly already moved on emotionally/romantically AND she wasn't brain dead. Although once she did die I was pretty horrified to learn the state of her brain. Nevertheless, she wasn't brain dead like Jahi is and so there was at least some thread of actual (brain stem induced?) life there.

Let's not forget what the Schiavo case was actually about. Her husband wasn't trying to prove that she was brain dead. He didn't need to. He recognized that she was in a PVS, though he believed (and the autopsy seemed to confirm) that there was really nothing "there," that the "responses" the family believed they saw were simply the reflexive grunts and movements often seen in severely brain damaged individuals.

TS's husband maintained that she had insisted that she would never have wanted to live in that condition, and that it was her right (as it is for any patient) to refuse or cease treatments of her choosing. As her POA, he maintained it was his duty to respect her thoughts in this regard.

So the battle was between husband and family over whether or not Teri would have wanted to continue living in that state or not; it was not over whether her body was in such a state that she deserved to die. It was not about who was willing to take on her care (or not). It was family's word ("She would have wanted to live like this") vs. husband ("She would not have wanted to live like this). Ultimately the court ruled that a husband would likely know more about his wife's adult philosophy vs. parents. Once the court recognized that, it was left to the husband to make the decision, and he did.

 

[Softail]

Unfortunately, I think he means until the family was liberated from the CHO's diabolical clutches :facepalm:

Yeah, you're probably right. A girl can only hope. :sigh:

 

[NevadaMom]

Hmmmm... :waitasec: EndureED. Interesting choice of words. I hope this somehow means that they have come to their senses, and during this silence laid Jahi to rest. :twocents:

Unfortunately, I think he means until the family was liberated from the CHO's diabolical clutches :facepalm:

You beat me to it. At first I was wondering about the past tense too, but then I took into account the general attitude of the family towards CHO... :facepalm:

 

[Herat]

I think my original estimate was $3-5M. I'll stick with that just because I don't think the family will take less than that. The hammer will be the potential of a ruling that the cap is unconstitutional. Both the hospital and the insurer will care about that. jmo

I agree, probably less than $5 million. Of course, after Dolan takes his share, it won't be the fabulous lottery forturne some family members seem to think.

Do they pay taxes on that settlement/award?

 

[TracyLynnS]

Remember back in December when Jahi's mom said this in a newspaper article:

"She is Jahi a name that means 'known by many.' If she knew about all this attention she would blush. She is very shy.

".... she would blush. She is very shy."

And now all these very personal things about her have been published to the world, her dignity has been taken from her, and it's going to get worse.

I can't even put my thoughts into words. She was just a young teenage girl. I believe if Jahi knew about what's going on, she would be horrified, embarrassed, humiliated. How can someone who loves her do this to her?





http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking...d-emotional-letter-from-jahi-mcmaths-mom-keep

 

[sherbetjello]

I agree, probably less than $5 million. Of course, after Dolan takes his share, it won't be the fabulous lottery forturne some family members seem to think.

Do they pay taxes on that settlement/award?

In California, we pay taxes on everything.
This also depends on what they are suing for; lost pay, medical expenses, pain and suffering, all of the above?

Medical expenses you would not pay tax. Lost pay, yes. You would pay the tax amount for what pay you are seeking. Pain and suffering is one I would have no idea about.

Maybe a legal eagle here can give us better advice than me. I have yet to grab some coffee.

http://www.ehow.com/info_10038426_pay-tax-injury-settlement-california.html

 

[Tulessa]

Schiavo was never considered dead.
She was brain damaged, but not brain dead.
Her only life support was a feeding tube.
Since all of us must eat to stay alive, I don't consider that life support, but the law did. So that is how husband was able to remove the feeding tube. It took her 11 days to die, as I recall.

And she starved to death?

 

[rob]

I agree, probably less than $5 million. Of course, after Dolan takes his share, it won't be the fabulous lottery forturne some family members seem to think.

Do they pay taxes on that settlement/award?

In SC, you don't pay taxes on settlements. I remember asking our attorney when he handed us the check (auto accident), and he stated 'no taxes on settlements'.
Don't know about other states though.

It was a settlement, not an award. Never went to court.

 

[Donjeta]

Schindler - My sister Terri Schiavo was alive like Jahi McMath
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/jan/16/schindler-my-sister-terri-schiavo-was-alive-like-j/

Second, we are not medical professionals. We do not know if Jahi will improve. We have no way of knowing that.

Yes, you have. You can read the declarations of the medical professionals who have examined her and testified that she is brain dead and will not improve.

 

[seattlechiquita]

Hmmmm... :waitasec: EndureED. Interesting choice of words. I hope this somehow means that they have come to their senses, and during this silence laid Jahi to rest. :twocents:

To me it says that he KNOWS his niece is dead (as in brain dead). I do not believe for one second that the uncle buys the whole she is still alive shtick. He is just a glutton for publicity and money.

 

[seattlechiquita]

And she starved to death?

She did not. The autopsy was clear about that.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/16/national/16schiavo.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Though Ms. Schiavo went almost two weeks without her gastric feeding tube before dying on March 31, Dr. Thogmartin said she technically died of "marked dehydration," not starvation.

 

[Donjeta]

To me it says that he KNOWS his niece is dead (as in brain dead). I do not believe for one second that the uncle buys the whole she is still alive shtick. He is just a glutton for publicity and money.

I assume he wants to support his sister but he had admitted Jahi's death before the lawyer came into the picture.

On Tuesday, a CT scan revealed that two-thirds of Jahi's brain was swollen.

Sealey said that Jahi's brain had been deprived of oxygen. "Now she is 100% brain damaged," he said. "Medically dead."

When told that his niece was brain dead, Sealey said the entire family went into "complete devastation."

"We pray over her daily," Sealey said. "We kiss her. I charge her iPod and make sure it is in her ears every night when I sleep next to her."

But he said he had accepted that she was legally dead.

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/12/17/health/california-girl-brain-dead/index.html

 

[Zuri]

Remember this good article?

Meghan Daum ‏@meghan_daum 17h
This week's column: The time for subtlety and "balance" in the #JahiMcMath saga is OVER.
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/comm...media-20140116,0,4738876.column#axzz2qZIfXkaw …

Uncle didn't like it:

Omari ‏@_iamOMARI 8h
@meghan_daum Your article was both insensitive & cruel. I pray you never experience what my family & I endured.

Thank you Popsicle for linking this article. It was excellent and finally, a journalist who gets it is speaking out. JMV