Jahi McMath's family seeks to move brain-dead girl to another facility

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25. A similar case

Several years ago my husband was on a jury in a similar case. A 4 year old had had a tonsillectomy, and came out of the surgery ok, but afterwards somehow became oxygen deprived and was severely brain damaged. (Not brain dead). At the time of the trial, the boy was around 12 yrs old. The hospital (Children's Hosp in Los Angeles), surgeon, nurses and anesthesiologist were being sued.

The family was asking for full 24 hr care, a new home for him/them to live in, a new van to transport him, expenses to have him educated through college--even though he was too brain damaged to have the capacity to understand anything going on around him--and what his lifetime earnings might have been. It was estimated at that time, that he had about a 3 yr life expectancy. At the time of his death, everything from the settlement would go to his mother. So these are the kinds of damages that can be sued for. I don't know if it would make a difference since this girl is actually brain dead, as to how far they can go with what they want.

The mother's attorney was trying to say that someone was negligent, but after all of the evidence was shown, expert testimony given etc, it could not be proved that anyone did anything wrong. My husband said that the jury was very sympathetic, and really wanted to give the mother something to help, but they could not find for her. (He said that there had been some kind of care offered to the boy before the trial, but the mother had refused the offer. I don't recall if the offer was from the hospital, or doctors or ?.) The anesthesiologist was going to have to go through another trial because it was felt he could not be completely exonerated, and might possibly have done something wrong. Not proved that he was negligent but he was still on the hook so to speak.

It's such a sad situation, I hope this family is not being taken advantage of by vultures looking to make some money off of their tragedy.