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13-year-old brain-dead girl gets feeding tubes at new facility

OAKLAND, Calif., Jan. 9 (UPI) -- Jahi McMath, the California girl who became brain-dead after a tonsillectomy, is improving after feeding and tracheotomy tubes were inserted, her family said.

The 13-year-old underwent a tonsillectomy Dec. 9 at Children's Hospital and Research Center Oakland and was declared brain-dead after she went into cardiac arrest and suffered extensive brain hemorrhaging. Three neurologists confirmed she was unable to breathe on her own, had no blood flow to her brain and no electrical activity.

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While at the hospital in Oakland, she was on a ventilator and was receiving fluids intravenously, but was not being given nutrition. Her family fought for the right to transfer her to another care facility where she could receive nutrition, hoping for a miraculous recovery.

McMath was transferred Sunday to an undisclosed facility where the procedures were done to insert the tubes, the Oakland (Calif.) Tribune reported Wednesday.

"She is doing very well and getting the treatment she should have gotten 28 days ago," the family's attorney, Christopher Dolan, said in a text message. "Doctors are optimistic that her condition has stabilized and that her health is improving from when she was taken from Children's Hospital Oakland."

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