Terri Schiavo Family Supports Jahi McMath's Family's Fight To Keep Her On Life Support

The foundation started by the family of Terri Schiavo has taken the side of Jahi McMath’s family as they continue to battle the Children’s Hospital in Oakland, Calif., which claims that the 13-year-old girl is medically dead.

Terri Schiavo’s Family Backs Jahi McMath’s Kin

The Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Network, launched after the Florida woman’s prolongued life support sparked national interest when her family fought her husband’s insistence to remove her feeding tube, believes the McMath family should be allowed to seek medical attention for Jahi elsewhere. Furthermore, they’ve suggested that the Oakland hospital’s insistence that McMath is brain dead is due to its “vested financial interest.”

“Under the direction of the Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Network, numerous organizations and individuals have been working on behalf of Jahi McMath and her family in relative silence for the sake of the sensitivity of her case,” read a statement released by the foundation. “Together with our team of experts, Terri’s Network believes Jahi’s case is representative of a very deep problem within the US healthcare system – particularly those issues surrounding the deaths of patients within the confines of hospital corporations, which have a vested financial interest in discontinuing life.”

McMath was diagnosed as brain dead three days after she underwent tonsil surgery on Dec. 9. Since then, she has remained on life support. While a judge had ruled earlier that the machines keeping McMath alive would be shut off on Monday, the deadline has now been moved to Jan. 7.

While the McMath’s and their lawyer Chris Dolan have been accusing the hospital of failing to do everything they can to improve the teenager’s condition and of obstructing efforts to have her moved to another facility, the hospital has remained adamant in its diagnosis.

Oakland Children’s Hospital Resolute In Brain Dead Diagnosis

“Chris Dolan is perpetuating a sad hoax on the public that there is something that can be done to the body of Jahi McMath to bring her back to life,” hospital spokesman Sam Singer told NBC Bay Area. “He is not being honest with his clients, the media and the public. The sad truth is that this young lady is dead and is not coming back. Our hearts go out to everyone involved in this case.”

“We have done everything to assist the family of Jahi McMath in their quest to take the deceased body of their daughter to another medical facility,” Singer added. “To date, they have been unwilling or unable to provide a physician to perform the procedures necessary, transportation, or a facility that would accept a dead person on a ventilator. Our hearts and thoughts go out to them in this tragic situation, but the statements being made by their attorney and some family members are misleading and untrue.”

Further details of the case are prevented by law from being shared with the public. However, Shiavo’s surviving brother Bobby Schindler, who is the executive director of the Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Network, believes that the details of Jahi’s case are of more interest and importance than the diagnosis of brain death.

“Families and individuals must make themselves aware of what so-called ‘brain death’ is and what it is not,” he said. “Every person needs to understand that medical accidents happen every day. Families and individuals must be more aware of the issue of accountability and patient rights.”

– Chelsea Regan

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