Tonsil surgery patient to remain on life support

A Northern California hospital has agreed to keep on life support a 13-year-old girl declared brain-dead after having surgery to remove her tonsils.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports officials at Oakland Children’s Hospital agreed Tuesday not to remove Jahi McMath’s ventilator after the girl’s family served a cease-and-desist order demanding she be kept breathing.

Tests have measured no brain activity.

The hospital said Sunday it would conduct an investigation after the girl went into cardiac arrest and died, before being brought back by hospital staff.

Doctors said the surgery would help with Jahi’s sleep apnea, but there were complications during her recovery last week and blood poured out of her nose.

The newspaper says the next steps remain unclear, and privacy laws leave the hospital unable to comment on the case.