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California girl on life support after tonsil surgery

OAKLAND, Calif. — A young girl from Oakland is brain dead after going into surgery to have her tonsils removed.

Now her family is demanding answers.

Jahi McMath, 13, and her mother Nailah Winkfield first arrived at Oakland Children's Hospital on Monday.

McMath was apprehensive, but her mother says she convinced her daughter things would be fine.

"She smiled when she walked in this hospital and I told her this surgery is to make you better," Winkfield said.

McMath went in to have her tonsils removed because doctors said it was to help with her sleep apnea.

But in recovery, the 13-year-old girl had disturbing complications.

"My daughter had actual clots sliding out of her mouth and they gave me a cup and said, 'here catch them with the cup so we can measure them,'" Winkfield said.

McMath's grandmother Sandra Chatman is a nurse at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Oakland and said she was surprised by what she calls a lack of attention by Oakland Children's Hospital staff.

"I went in and I said 'is this normal, do you guys find this to be normal?' And they said 'I don't really know,' and I said 'well then get a doctor,'" Chatman said.

McMath took a turn for the worst on the last day.