Daily Talker: Life Support Battle

The family of a 13-year-old girl who was declared brain-dead after having surgery to remove her tonsils will go to court to prevent a hospital from taking her off life support.

The mother of Jahi McMath wants Children's Hospital in Oakland, California to keep the girl alive until after Christmas, but she said hospital officials were not receptive to their request. "I don't want to have my Christmas every year remind me of her being taken off a ventilator," said the mother.

An uncle said the hospital's chief of pediatrics was very rude and cold during a meeting with the family on Thursday. "He pretty much yelled across the table, `She is dead, dead, dead, dead, and we don't treat the dead,"' said the uncle.

The family is also asking for an outside medical expert to make an independent decision as to whether Jahi is truly brain dead. The family's lawyer plans to file for an injunction on Friday to prevent the hospital from acting without the family's permission.

The hospital said it can't discuss the case because of patient privacy rules, but a spokeswoman did say, "We do feel there have been some mischaracterizations of the situation."

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