A comatose California woman was nearly taken off life support when doctors wrongly declared her brain-dead, reports revealed Tuesday.
Two UC San Francisco School of Medicine neurologists and professors found 29-year-old Anahita Meshkin “did not meet the clinical criteria for brain death” after her father’s lawyer filed a temporary restraining order last May, the San Jose Mercury News reported. Her hospital performed a surgery on her hip despite doctors’ previous refusal to operate on her.
Families are raising more questions about brain death diagnoses in the wake of another Bay Area case in which a teen’s family successfully fought to have her moved out of her hospital. A Northern California couple is currently fighting to keep their toddler son on life support.
Meshkin remains in a coma she fell into in 2007 following her massive seizure while suffering from anorexia. Her mother died from an overdose in 2011 brought on by heartbreak over her daughter’s condition, Meshkin’s father, Mohammad Meshkin, told the Mercury News.
“I'll fight as long as she does,” he said. “If she quits, I will quit. But I have my hope that she'll come back.”
Doctors found in a court-ordered test that Anahita Meshkin, 30, was wrongly diagnosed as brain-dead.
(SUSAN TRIPP POLLARD/AP)
He contacted Christopher Dolan, the attorney who helped the family of a teen named Jahi McMath appeal a court decision and get her moved to New Jersey out of the Oakland facility where she was diagnosed as brain-dead in 2013.
A court ordered the independent test on Meshkin after Dolan filed for the injunction to force the hospital to treat her. The test concluded Meshkin “had residual brain stem function,” with the neurologists writing that she moved her elbow and head when they pinched her hand.
Dolan said Meshkin’s hospital, the John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek, was looking out for both its bottom line and her family's in diagnosing her as brain-dead.
“They make resource determinations as to where money is best spent, but that's not their role, that's not their right," Dolan said. "And I think the law needs to be resolved to keep them from playing God."
Anahita Meshkin’s family continues to support and fight for Anahita’s life.
(SUSAN TRIPP POLLARD/AP)
Ben Drew, spokesman for the hospital, declined to discuss the specifics of Meshkin’s case. He noted, however, that the medical center’s brain death policies are more rigorous than state requirements and use standards adopted by the American Academy of Neurology.
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