Chris Dolan was recently featured on CNN’s Piers Morgan program with the family of 13-year-old Jahi McMath.
The middle school student suffered complications during routine tonsil surgery at Children’s Hospital & Research Center in Oakland, California.
The girl’s mother says that Jahi was moved to the hospital’s ICU after her surgery and that the family was denied access to the 8th grader for 30 minutes. When the family was finally able to see Jahi, she was bleeding profusely.
“We kept asking, ‘Is this normal?'” the girl’s uncle told CNN in an interview. “Some nurses said, ‘I don’t know,’ and some said, ‘Yes.’ There was a lot of uncertainty and a lack of urgency.”
The uncle said that Jahi then went into cardiac arrest and hospital officials told the family that the girl was completely brain dead due to oxygen deprivation.
The hospital did not confirm the uncle’s report to CNN.
The family is now in a bitter battle with the hospital to keep the girl on life support.
Hospital officials say that they want to take Jahi off of life support because she has already been reported as medically dead. Jahi’s family wants a second medical opinion.
Attorney Chris Dolan recently sent the hospital a cease-and-desist letter on behalf of the family, who believes that she can still make a recovery.
“Before she went into that hospital she was perfectly fine,” the girl’s mother said. “I don’t want her taken off of life support because I feel like she will be able to wake up.”
Chris Dolan notes in his cease-and-desist letter that the hospital has a conflict of interest in this case because it may be held liable for her medical expenses if she is transported to a different facility.
If the hospital manages to take Jahi off of life support, its legal exposure is limited to about $250,000 due to California’s strict medical malpractice laws.
