McMath Family Says Jahi Could Be Moved To New York Soon

OAKLAND (KCBS) -- The family of Jahi McMath said the 13-year-old girl, who was declared brain-dead after tonsil surgery, could soon be moved to a new facility on the East Coast. A hospital spokesman, however, said they were unaware of any such plans.

Court filings reveal that the family wants to move McMath to the New Beginnings Community Center in Medford, N.Y.

"It is my understanding that once we have a facility that has agreed to remove her and we have notified the hospital, we are allowed to move Jahi," Omari Sealey (McMath's uncle) said.

McMath, however, will need to have feeding and breathing tubes inserted before being transported -- two surgical procedures that Children's Hospital said it's unwilling to have performed on the premises.

"That's a huge roadblock for us so we're going to try to go around that and go about moving her without it and finding a physician at the nearby facility to that will be willing to perform the procedure."

Children's Hospital spokesman Sam Singer said they unaware about any transfer plans. He said multiple doctors have declared McMath brain dead.

"They have not informed the hospital of this information. They have provided us not a single physician, a single transport and not single facility that would knowingly accepted a deceased person on a ventilator," he said.

"I don't what else the family needs to hear, or the attorney need to hear, to convince them. That's just the sad truth of the case."

A judge has ordered the hospital to keep McMath on the ventilator until at least Jan. 7.

McMath suffered severe complications from a tonsillectomy to treat her sleep apnea on Dec. 9. After she awoke from the operation, her family said she started bleeding heavily and went into cardiac arrest; she was declared brain dead three days later.

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