The family of a 13-year-old girl declared brain dead by three doctors received an extension from a judge on Monday to keep the 8th-grader on life support until Jan. 7.
With an hour to spare, a superior court judge reinstated a restraining order preventing an Oakland, Calif., hospital from removing Jahi McMath from life support at 5 p.m. PT (8 p.m. ET) on Monday.
McMath underwent a tonsillectomy and other operations to alleviate her sleep apnea on Dec. 9. She started bleeding profusely and went into cardiac arrest shortly after.
The young girl’s family has been in a legal battle with Children’s Hospital in Oakland since doctors at the hospital declared her brain dead three days later.
The family had already won a restraining order preventing doctors from removing the girl from a ventilator keeping her alive, but the order was revoked Tuesday after testimony from an independent physician who said McMath met “all criteria for brain death," according to NBC Bay Area.
McMath’s parents have insisted that their daughter is alive, regardless of doctors’ opinions that her condition is irreversible.
"I would probably need my child's heart to stop to show me that she was dead. Her heart was still beating, so there's still life there," McMath's mother, Nailah Winfield told the Associated Press on Friday.
On a fundraising page aimed at raising funds to transfer Jahi from Children’s Hospital, Winfield wrote Friday, “My family and I are still striving to find a location that will accept her in her current condition … Let us pray that some one (sic) will have the heart to accept her despite what Children's Hospital says. So that we can get her air lifted away from this place as soon as possible.” On Monday, donors had contributed over $25,000 to Jahi’s cause.