Judge to Hospital: Keep Brain-Dead Teen Alive

A judge today extended Jahi McMath's lifeline by ordering an Oakland hospital to keep her on breathing support until January 7 at 5pm, the San Jose Mercury News reports. The latest volley in the emotional battle over the brain-dead 13-year-old came as her family said another facility would accept her for long-term care. "The family has located a licensed facility in the state of New York which has agreed to take Jahi," said her uncle, Omari Sealey. "We have contracted with an air ambulance willing to take her from door to door. "

But Sealey said the Children's Hospital Oakland would not "allow us to proceed in that manner." For its part, the hospital said it understood from media reports that the New York facility had backed out of the agreement. The girl's family also said it has video of Jahi reacting to her mother's voice and gave footage to the hospital's attorney. "She's moving her body," her grandmother said. "Her vital signs are good." Sealey added that a pediatrician has seen Jahi and "sworn that she is not dead." Jahi was declared brain-dead after undergoing a routine tonsil surgery at the hospital earlier this month. Click for more on Jahi's case. (More Jahi McMath stories.)