Jahi McMath is the brain-dead 13-year old girl who got that way after complications from sleep apnea during surgery at Children’s Hospital, Oakland. The Jahi McMath story is a local one (I live in Oakland) that I’ve stayed away from because I feel for both sides of it. But what has poked me off the sidelines is the most recent news report that Jahi McMath is “improving.”
The report comes from my friend Joe Vazquez, who has taken subtlety to a new art form in his work as a journalist for KPIX CBS-Five in San Francisco. In this case, he emphasizes that the lawyer for the family of Jahi McMath says that her condition is “improving.” In other words, we’re being spun, and really, so is Jahi McMath, and that’s the last thing anyone needs now.
The bottom line is what happened to the McMath girl is tragic, sad, and very tearfully upsetting. It’s the kind of episode for which you want a miracle to occur, and everyone wants a miracle to happen, but the sad truth is, miracles happen when we see them, not via the words of an attorney.
There is no one who doesn’t want Jahi McMath alive, and that includes the folks at Children’s Hospital Oakland. They are also haunted by this outcome, and the accusations that have been thrown at them are nothing short of terrible. Children’s Hospital has longed for a miracle, but also had to deal with the sad truth about her condition. This is a matter that does not allow for dry eyes.
Or for false hopes.
Giving false hope does no one any good at all – Christopher Dolan is doing just that. But we can’t see her. She’s reportedly at Saint Peter’s University Hospital in New Jersey, but the spokesperson there will not confirm or deny that the McMath girl is really there.
So, stepping in here, we have Dolan, a good personal injury lawyer who’s working to remove the $250,000 cap on California personal injury lawsuits, using this situation to really give emotional rise to the eventual removal of the limit.
As much as I agree with Dolan’s push for a removal of the cap, and for a set of very, very personal reasons, the fact is he’s using Jahi McMath for that purpose, and that’s wrong.
The sad truth is she’s declared brain-dead. The sad truth is, it takes doctors to make a determination regarding the status of a person in that condition, not lawyers. It’s flat out wrong for Dolan to just come forward and make statements that no doctor can confirm, and gives the family false hope.
Dolan’s words give more pain to those who dream of a miracle, and compound that pain upon the realization that the miracle isn’t going to happen. If it’s there to occur, let the doctors tell us it is, not the lawyers.
That will stop the words of hurt by Dolan.
Stay tuned.
Zennie Abraham | Zennie Abraham or “Zennie62” is the founder of Zennie62Media which consists of zennie62blog.com and a multimedia blog news aggregator and video network, and 78-blog network, with social media and content development services and consulting. Zennie is a pioneer video blogger, YouTube Partner, social media practitioner, game developer, and pundit. Note: news aggregator content does not reflect the personal views of Mr. Abraham.