Christopher Dolan, the San Francisco lawyer representing the family of Jahi McMath, appeared today on a Huffington Post Live panel to discuss the brain-dead Oakland teenager and the ethical and legal issues surrounding the case.
He said that while it would be inappropriate for him to offer a medical opinion, "There's always hope that there could be life that will be returned to Jahi. ... There are several documented cases where there have been individuals who have been diagnosed with brain death who have evolved from that."
Jahi, 13, was declared brain dead last month after surgery at Children's Hospital & Research Center Oakland. Her cardiopulmonary function has been sustained by a ventilator since then. Dolan won a court order on behalf of Jahi's mother, Latasha Winkfield, preventing the hospital from removing the ventilator, and Jahi was transferred last week to another facility.
Dolan acknowledged after the move that Jahi "is in very bad shape." But he later reported via Twitter that doctors had performed a tracheostomy and insert a feeding tube, and that physicians "are optimistic that her condition has stabilized and that her health is improving from when she was taken from CHO."
Since Jahi is legally dead, Children's Hospital had refused to perform those procedures.