Brain dead girl's mother continues science-religion fight

Jahi McMath and her funeral in California. Photo / AP

After battling for more than four years to keep a comatose daughter declared brain dead from being issued a California death certificate, Nailah Winkfield forcefully told mourners at her daughter's funeral service to stop letting doctors "pull the plug on your people".

The San Francisco Bay Area congregation gave Winkfield a standing ovation yesterday for fighting to keep her daughter on life support and taking on the medical establishment in the brain death debate between science and religion.

A California coroner issued a death certificate in January 2014 for Jahi McMath, then 13, after doctors said she died of irreversible brain damage during a routine surgery to remove her tonsils in December 2013.

Winkfield refused to accept the California doctors' conclusions and took her daughter to New Jersey, a state that accommodates religions that don't recognise brain death.

The girl was kept on life support and received nursing care until New Jersey doctors declared her dead last week, saying the 17-year-old died of excessive bleeding after an abdominal operation.

New Jersey authorities issued McMath another death certificate, dated June 22.

Winkfield has filed two lawsuits in California, which seek to invalidate the state's death certificate.

Winkfield's attorney, Chris Dolan, said the New Jersey death certificate should strengthen Winkfield's legal position.

She is suing the doctors and Oakland's Children's Hospital for medical malpractice, alleging surgeons botched what should have been a routine tonsillectomy.

Damages in California for so-called non-economic harm in medical malpractice cases for pain and suffering and the like are capped at US$250,000 when the patient dies.

The hospital and Winkfield were wrangling over that in court when New Jersey issued its death certificate. Dolan said it's unclear how the new death certificate will affect the medical malpractice case.

Dolan has also filed a federal civil rights lawsuit, which seeks to invalidate California's death certificate.

At the funeral service Winkfield said she kept up her fight because of her deep Christian belief her daughter was alive and could respond to her name and simple commands to wiggle a finger or toe.

She criticised the doctors who insisted her daughter was dead and said she was fighting to eliminate "brain death" as a diagnosis.

"Stop letting them pull the plug on your people," Winkfield said of doctors. "They are not God."

New Jersey's Medicaid programme, donations and family members paid for the girl's care. Winkfield said she sold her California home and drained her savings to keep her daughter on life support.

During the service, she was lauded for her determination and strength. Jahi's body was taken to nearby Hayward for burial.

- AP