Jahi McMath to be buried in Hayward while fight over her death continues

Nailah Winkfield appears at a news conference with her attorney Christopher Dolan (left), her brother Omari Sealey and husband Marvin Winkfield to discuss the death of her daughter Jahi McMath in San Francisco, Calif. on Tuesday, July 3, 2018. less Nailah Winkfield appears at a news conference with her attorney Christopher Dolan (left), her brother Omari Sealey and husband Marvin Winkfield to discuss the death of her daughter Jahi McMath in San Francisco, ... more Photo: Paul Chinn / The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Paul Chinn / The Chronicle Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close Jahi McMath to be buried in Hayward while fight over her death continues 1 / 5 Back to Gallery

Four and a half years since she was pronounced dead at age 13 by the Alameda County coroner’s office, Oakland teen Jahi McMath will be buried at a cemetery in Hayward, bringing some emotional closure to a mother who dedicated herself to caring for the daughter she insisted was alive and gradually improving.

But the saga is far from over.

Two lawsuits over the teen’s death are ongoing: a federal civil rights case to nullify her original 2013 death certificate and replace it with a new one issued June 22, and a malpractice case against Children’s Hospital Oakland over a tonsillectomy that her family said was done improperly.

“I gave up everything for Jahi, and the only regret I have is bringing her to the hospital to get her tonsils removed,” said the girl’s mother, Nailah Winkfield, at a news conference Tuesday at the San Francisco office of her lawyer, Christopher Dolan.

“Everything that I did, from selling my house, to quitting my job, to moving across the country and taking all that time away from my family, it was all worth it,” Winkfield said, referring to her family’s cross-country move to New Jersey, a state that makes exemptions for death certificates that violate families’ religious beliefs.

Photo: Uncredited / AP File - This undated file photo provided by the McMath family and...

The news conference started late because Dolan was still wrangling with the Alameda County coroner’s office, which he said had denied Jahi’s family a permit to bury the girl. A spokesman from the coroner’s office disputed that account, saying no one had tried to step in the way of the burial.

Jahi’s body is in a funeral home and will be laid to rest in Mount Eden Cemetery on Friday.

Jahi became the focus of an impassioned national debate on the meaning of death after she was declared dead in December 2013 from complications associated with surgery for sleep apnea at Children’s Hospital.

Her family insisted she remain on life support and be given a chance to recover. Her mother flew her to an undisclosed location in New Jersey, where she received 16 hours of in-home care a day from doctors and nurses, paid for by the state’s medical insurance. Winkfield quit her job to care for her daughter, paying out of pocket for skin care products and vitamins.

McMath’s parents say she died June 22 at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, N.J., of bleeding due to liver failure and a brain injury caused by lack of oxygen. The state issued a second death certificate, which the family says should replace the original.

It may be up to an Alameda County jury to decide whether Jahi remained legally alive during the years that she lay unresponsive while her mother washed her hair and painted her nails. Her stepfather kept a large generator at the location, to power Jahi’s ventilator and feeding tube during blizzards.

“There’s no way in the world that I would be holding onto a corpse for 4½ years,” Winkfield said, noting that Jahi started menstruating and seemed to communicate through hand movements during that period.

If a jury sides with Winkfield, determining that Jahi was alive until June 22, her family could seek damages to cover medical expenses and emotional distress until that date. It would be the first verdict ever to undo an official determination of death, according to legal experts.

Yet if jurors decide that Jahi died in 2013, the family would be limited to $250,000 in damages for each plaintiff to compensate for emotional harm caused by medical malpractice.

Winkfield said at the news conference that she is not motivated by money, and that she endured severe financial hardship, selling her house and quitting her job to keep her daughter on life support.

“This is the brokest I’ve ever been,” she said.

Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rswan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @RachelSwan