While the world celebrates the New year, the family of Jahi McMath is working feverishly to find a doctor who will conduct the necessary medical procedures to transfer the teenage girl to a medical facility that will provide the supposedly “brain dead” girl additional care and treatment.
Her mother and family say she is alive following a tonsillectomy gone awry that has left her in an incapacitated state since early December.
Christopher Dolan, the pro-life attorney who has been working pro bono for the family, bemoaned the New Year’s Day holiday today, saying on Twitter that it is making his job more difficult.
No news today other Then we are burning up the phone lines trying to overcome this new obstacle place by Children’s Hospital.
— Christopher Dolan (@cbdlaw) January 1, 2014
Trying to find a doctor on New Year’s eve/New Year’s Day to conduct a tracheostomy in high-profile case is very difficult. Happy new year
— Christopher Dolan (@cbdlaw) January 1, 2014
Yesterday, a nationally-respected pediatrician said that Jahi McMath, who is at the center of a national debate about whether she should remain on life support, is not “brain dead” and can recover with proper care and nutrition.
Dr. Paul A. Byrne, a Neonatologist who is the Director of Neonatology and Director of Pediatrics at St. Charles Mercy Hospital in Oregon, Ohio, has given a new interview to a local NBC television station. Byrne is also a Clinical Professor of Pediatrics University of Toledo College of Medicine and the past president of the Catholic Medical Association.
Byrne told the station he does not believe that brain death is “true death” and said, with “proper nutrition and care,” McMath can have meaningful recovery to the degree that she would not meet the “brain death” criteria. He also said as much in court findings that Christopher Dolan, the attorney for McMath’s family.
Late Monday afternoon, the judge in the case granted an extension for life support after a legal request from Dolan. 
