The Latest: Funeral starts for girl declared dead twice

HAYWARD, Calif. – The Latest on funeral for a Northern California girl at centre of brain death debate (all times local):

12 p.m.

Dozens of family members, friends and other mourners filed into a Northern California church for a funeral service for a teenage girl at the centre of a religious and medical debate over brain death.

Bishop Bob Jackson of Oakland’s All Acts Full Gospel Church called the service Friday for Jahi McMath a “celebration of a miracle.”

New Jersey doctors declared Jahi dead a week ago, saying she died from excessive bleeding after an abdominal operation.

A California coroner issued a death certificate for the girl more than four years ago after doctors say she suffered irreversible brain damage during surgery to remove her tonsils.

Her mother refused to accept the conclusion and took her daughter for care in New Jersey, which accommodates religions that don’t recognize brain death.

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9:40 a.m.

Family members are holding a funeral in Northern California for a girl at the centre of a medical and religious debate over brain death.

San Francisco Bay Area news station KTVU-TV reports that the service for 17-year-old Jahi McMath will be held Friday at an Oakland church. She will be buried in the nearby city of Hayward.

Her mother, Nailah Winkfield, said that doctors declared Jahi dead on June 22 after an operation to treat an intestinal issue.

The girl had already been declared dead in December 2013 after suffering irreversible brain damage during routine surgery in California when she was 13.

Winkfield refused to accept the conclusion and took her daughter for care in New Jersey, which accommodates religions that don’t recognize brain death.