Trainwreck Nailah "Mama Nails" Winkfield / Latasha Spears-Winkfield - Jahi McMath's mother, kept dead child in apartment to play dress-up, put on makeup and paint nails

[Jaded Optimist]

I'd also like to know more about why Granny picked up the suctioning equipment instead of calling the nurse-- trying to cover something up? I hope the case goes to trial for the extr

Especially since suctioning is pretty awful, even when it's a stranger.

 

[Deezy]

ew. ew ew ew. they put a feeding tube in a corpse? where's all that shit going???

 

[Fresh Grown Breasts]

This reminds me of those Victorian corpse photos, yet somehow more horrifying. At least they accepted the corpse was dead.

 

[UnderwaterUnderworld]

As sad as this is, I never really knew what happened to Jahi after she was taken to that other hospital.

Now I wish I never had.

 

[Lunete]

Reminds me of that little boy who was kept on life support for twenty years while his brain slowly melted into goop and then calcified.

 

[Loxiozzz]

Fuck this lady. You allowed your daughter to gain all that weight at a young age and didn't alert a doctor when you needed one. Now you're using her corpse to rake in money and sympathy.

Let your child be put to rest. That's the least you could do.

 

[Barbarella]

ew. ew ew ew. they put a feeding tube in a corpse? where's all that shit going???

Apparently, many of your organs don't need a brain to function including your intestinal tract. She's getting oxygenated blood and her heats beating, that's all her body needs. So she is in a diaper or more likely on absorbent towels, and probably has a catheter for pee. They have to keep her very clean because she can't heal properly so probably can't let her pee at will.

The thing that will finally stop this is an infection or a flu, maybe a bedsore or something she can't heal from. If she has a catheter, than a urinary tract infection is possible. Her body systems have been stabilized (not everybody's would be, it's likely due to her age) so it's going to be an injury or infection that finally stops her heart.

There was one person who was brain dead from the age of four-he lived to age 20. When they autopsied his brain it was just calcified tissue. Like Jahi, he also had some spinal reflexes which fooled his mother.

I'm a mother too and yes, this is very sad. But I know I wouldn't put my child through this, or rather, the rest of the family through this (since Jahi is dead and not going through anything). Brain death is very clear and there are zero instances in medical literature of anybody recovering from it. It's not a coma-her brain is gone.

But hey, 45 million bucks. Keep her breathing, amirite?

 

[RI 360]

One of the most ridiculous moments in this case came when the family and their huckster lawyer used this MRI from September 2014 - in which Jahi's brain stem (responsible for maintaining heart rate, breathing, sleeping, and eating) and midbrain (associated with vision, hearing, motor control, sleep/wake cycle, alertness, and temperature regulation) is shot full of vast, gaping holes and basically liquefying - to prove to the media that she was absolutely, definitely alive. Does it really matter that her cerebral cortex looks slightly less liquefied when her brain stem's basically dissolved? That is not compatible with life. I'm not a neurologist, a radiologist, or even the guy who sluices the bedpans, but even I can tell looking at this picture that this shit ain't right. And this is the picture they released! This is the stand-out, the star of the show, the absolute best image they had.

The most horrific thing about this image is it's nearly three years old. Now imagine what Jahi's brain must look like today.

So I emailed a friend in this field with this scan and an outline of the story and this is their professional opinion which was incredibly edifying:

So first off, her brain is not "liquifying" with "gaping holes" like that poster is saying. That's not really a thing. Second, she's technically not dead but either in what's known as a persistent vegetative state or brain death. They are somewhat different things with brain death meaning that there is an irreversible loss of brain functions that control important, life maintaining funtions such as breathing, etc. In both the patient has lost all higher brain functions and usually is being kept alive only through medical means. Third, that MRI pic is shit and literally shows nothing besides the fact that there is brain tissue there.

From what I've been able to gather in this particular situation, she was declared dead and then "revived". After a certain amount of time without oxygen, the brain begins to die. Once enough brain tissue is dead, the chance of recovery is... Eh... Shit basically.

If she is considered to be in a PVS, there is considered little hope for recovery especially the longer things go on. After three months, she's not really expected to recover. Some "locked-in" patients are unable to reposond but are fully conscious.

Brain dead patients, those that show no brain activity, might be legally considered dead depending on the country/state. They will never recover, are never conscious, and cannot legitimately respond to any external stimuli. There will still be some reflexes, however, that might make it appear there is a response occuring. These are spinal cord reflexes and not intentional on the part of the patient. It should also be noted that PVS patients can show EEG activity.

Regardless, with as long as the state has persisted, this girl is, sadly, not "coming back".

Oops, forgot one response:

If her attending physicians say it is brain death then I would trust their diagnosis.

 

[smallmilk]

She's getting oxygenated blood and her heats beating, that's all her body needs.

Is that also stopping her body from shriveling into a prune?

 

[Helvetica Scenario]

So first off, her brain is not "liquifying" with "gaping holes" like that poster is saying. That's not really a thing.

Yeah, this is why I'm not even qualified to sluice bedpans, never mind attempt to work out what the heck I'm seeing on one rather bad MRI scan after reading about autolysis of the brain.

Spoiler: Don't read about autolysis of the brain.

While normal brain tissue is firm, a brain that has been dead shows progressive autolysis, a form of biological self-destruction. “It will almost be like soup,” Dr. Harry Vinters, chief of neuropathology at UCLA, recently explained to me. He is the co-author of a major textbook on the pathology of the brain and has performed almost a hundred autopsies on the brain-dead. “It really depends on how long they have been on the ventilator. If they have been on the ventilator for two days, then the brain is grey and softened. But if, for example, a family has had difficulty deciding what they want to do and the patient has been kept on the ventilator for two to three weeks, then there’s tremendous autolysis. The brain gets very swollen, soft, and mushy.” The nerve tissue can become so friable that fragments of brain from the head will break off and float down the spinal column. “Sometimes I’ll be looking at a slide of the spinal cord,” says Vinters, “and I’ll see fragments of cerebellum floating around in the specimen.”

From Dead Enough? The Paradox of Brain Death by Dr Pauline Chen

As for Jahi, she was legally certified dead in January 2014. Normally, two doctors are needed for diagnosis of brain death; Jahi had seven.

 

[Yaks]

So I emailed a friend in this field with this scan and an outline of the story and this is their professional opinion which was incredibly edifying:



Oops, forgot one response:

Ah thanks for that, I was about to reply about how that whole bit was wrong.

Also that doesn't look like decomp on the fingers in my experience - people are going a little too far with that speculation without knowing how decomp in the human body works. The discoloration just isn't there and with the amount of oxygenated blood going through the body, the cells aren't being allowed to get to that stage. If she was going through decomp, with how long its been even with an air conditioned room, it would be far worse than that. The discoloration wouldn't just be dark spots, but also lighter areas and she would have definitely began to bloat by now or even go into later stages depending on the environment her body is being kept in. Her eyes would have also sunken in by now, so unless they jammed the spiked eye caps or cotton under there for the ~illusion~, she isn't decomposing before everyones eyes.

EDIT

Is that also stopping her body from shriveling into a prune?

Yes. Basically, when cells are deprived of oxygen, they begin to break down through certain chemical processes. Her body isn't being deprived, so her cells live on.

 

[Pikapool]

Satan has a special place in hell for this woman

 

[Pooquan]

It looks like her eyes are glued shut in up close shots.

They very well may be - corpses' eyelids are generally at half-mast. When morticians embalm a body, they have to use mechanical means to keep the lids shut.

 

[WW 635]

They very well may be - corpses' eyelids are generally at half-mast. When morticians embalm a body, they have to use mechanical means to keep the lids shut.

She isn't embalmed

 

[Yaks]

They very well may be - corpses' eyelids are generally at half-mast. When morticians embalm a body, they have to use mechanical means to keep the lids shut.

We don't, however, glue patients in hospitals eyes shut. Like sleep said:

She isn't embalmed

Also, how hasn't the hospital done anything about them? I'm genuinely curious, since they did essentially cause the death of their own daughter.

 

[RI 360]

Also, how hasn't the hospital done anything about them? I'm genuinely curious, since they did essentially cause the death of their own daughter.

I think that would be for a DA to pursue, not the hospital. And I don't think they would, it's not one of those cases where the mother was purposely poisoning the child with pinesol. Her family is clearly a bunch of fucking invalids and they thought they knew better than the doctor and the child herself probably thought being able to speak was evidence of how well she was.

I've heard of cases where patients who were still in the hospital after getting their stomachs reduced having them burst and dying after family members brought them bags of fast food, but I can't think of an instance where charges followed.

ETA: I agree the family is at fault, it's tragic but not criminal imo.

 

[Barbarella]

I think that would be for a DA to pursue, not the hospital. And I don't think they would, it's not one of those cases where the mother was purposely poisoning the child with pinesol. Her family is clearly a bunch of fucking invalids and they thought they knew better than the doctor and the child herself probably thought being able to speak was evidence of how well she was.

I've heard of cases where patients who were still in the hospital after getting their stomachs reduced having them burst and dying after family members brought them bags of fast food, but I can't think of an instance where charges followed.

ETA: I agree the family is at fault, it's tragic but not criminal imo.

It's like those idiots who forget and leave their toddler in a hot car all day and the kid dies. They are never prosecuted because they've "suffered enough."

This family was beyond stupid. Grandma thinking she knew how and when to suction Jahi was a major over-reach and certainly led to Jahi's death. But there was no malice, she thought she knew what she was doing. And like with a lot of cows, food seems to knock out common sense.

The family screams that when Jahi was bleeding they couldn't get a doctor but the grandma was quoted as saying the doctor came "back" so there is at least one lie from them.

I would really like to see the medical records. If you ever have time and are interested, read all of Doc Bastards post on this topic and the comments, which are mostly from other doctors. You get a good insight into this. (It's also why I qualified my statements about the decomp, as he says there is likely little to none.) If you also read AllNurses on this subject, many say that one of the worst smells as a nurse is "neurobreath". So that may be what people are reporting as the smell coming from Jahi.

 

[C3PBRO]

I've read through the Hooligan thread. You see the occasional bout of consciousness or emotion (perceived or no) in them and then blip, back to blank. In this child I see nothing.

If you thought even for a moment that this child was alive, why in god's name would you put that sticky gauze over her eyes to keep them closed? I've only ever seen that shit to preserve eyes for donation, or to prevent the patient opening their eyes under anesthesia during surgery (:powerlevel. If your child stood any chance of waking up in a bedazzled room of loved ones, what is the point of holding eyes shut?

 

[WW 635]

I've read through the Hooligan thread. You see the occasional bout of consciousness or emotion (perceived or no) in them and then blip, back to blank. In this child I see nothing.

If you thought even for a moment that this child was alive, why in god's name would you put that sticky gauze over her eyes to keep them closed? I've only ever seen that shit to preserve eyes for donation, or to prevent the patient opening their eyes under anesthesia (:powerlevel. If your child stood any chance of waking up in a bedazzled room of loved ones, what is the point of holding eyes shut?

If the patient is brain dead there is no consciousness. If someone is in a persistent vegetative state then they can sometimes be aware of their environment.

It sounds like this girl is brain dead though. Is that correct @Barbarella?

 

[C3PBRO]

If the patient is brain dead there is no consciousness. If someone is in a persistent vegetative state then they can sometimes be aware of their environment.

It sounds like this girl is brain dead though. Is that correct @Barbarella?

I guess I was probably optimistic and assumed the mother thought there was some hope for recovery and that's why all this shit is happening. But if Jahi was in a PVS surely there's no need for the tape on the eyes right? Or has the mother accepted the child is brain dead?

Sorry if I seem argumentative, the mental gymnastics of some of these depraved mothers is truly elusive.