Jahi McMath: Lessons learned

Abstract

Jahi McMath's story has been an important reference in medicine and ethics as the landscape of the understanding of death by neurologic criteria is shifting, with families actively questioning the once-firm criterion. Palliative care providers have a role in seeking understanding and collaborating with families and clinical teams to navigate the many challenges that arise when a medical team has determined that a child has died, and their parents disagree. In this case-based narrative discussion we consider the complexity of the family experience of brain death.