This led to a bioethical debate engendered by her family's rejection of the medicolegal findings of death in the case, and their efforts to maintain her body using mechanical ventilation and other measures.

[15] According to court documents,[16] McMath was admitted to Children's Hospital Oakland on December 9, 2013, for an adenotonsillectomy, uvulopalatopharyngoplasty and submucous resection of bilateral inferior turbinates.

[17][18] After the surgeries were performed, McMath was conscious and according to her mother, Latasha "Nailah" Winkfield,[18][19][20] asked for a popsicle while in the recovery room.

[16] Her family refused to accept the medical declaration of death by neurological criteria, said that McMath was not dead, and initiated legal proceedings in an effort to require the hospital to continue treatment.

In a pretrial conference on December 23, Judge Evelio Grillo appointed Paul Graham Fisher, the chief of Child Neurology at Stanford University School of Medicine, to provide an independent medical opinion regarding the declaration of brain death.

[32][33] On December 24, 2013, Judge Grillo ruled that McMath was legally dead,[34] basing his decision on the medical evidence presented by physicians from Children's Hospital Oakland and from independent expert Paul Fisher, but ruled to require the hospital to continue mechanical ventilation until December 30, 2013,[32] later extending this order until January 7, 2014.

[34] McMath's mother argued that applying the Uniform Determination of Death Act to the case was a violation of constitutional religious and privacy rights[35] and that because Jahi's heart was still beating, she was still alive.

[10][12] At that time, Dolan also filed documents asking that the Alameda County Superior Court reverse their finding of brain death in the case.

[55][56] Dolan then withdrew the petition for the October 2014 court hearing[57] and requested that the involved doctors collaborate, stating that "with an open and transparent dialogue between health care professionals, only one conclusion can remain: that Jahi McMath is not brain dead.

[60] The lawsuit alleges that the surgeon noted an abnormal artery in McMath's throat but did not notify the nurses that this placed the girl at increased risk for serious hemorrhaging.

[14] After viewing over four dozen independent videos of McMath, Alan Shewmon, a UCLA pediatric neurologist, declared her technically alive in a June 29, 2017, court filing, stating that the girl follows movement commands and exhibits other proof of life.

She was having internal bleeding due to kidney and liver failure, so her doctors removed her from life support, allowing her heart to stop.