A California judge today, agreeing with an earlier decision, has ruled 13-year-old Jahi McMath, who was left brain dead after having her tonsils removed a little more than two weeks ago, can be disconnected from life support Dec. 30.

The decision by Alameda County Judge Evelio Grillo followed testimony from a Stanford University neurologist that the Oakland, Calif., girl met all medical criteria for brain death, since she hemorrhaged and suffered a heart attack after a Dec. 9 tonsillectomy at Children's Hospital Oakland.

Doctors declared her brain dead Dec. 12 and have sought to end all means of artificial life support, but McMath's family has fought that effort in the courts, winning a temporary injunction against the hospital from removing any support until the court heard the findings of an independent evaluation.

Grillo said that unless a higher court decides to intervene, the hospital must keep McMath mechanically alive only until 5 p.m. Dec. 30. Meanwhile, the girl's family, expected to file an appeal, is seeking another doctor to perform another evaluation.

"This has been very, very hard on you," Grillo said, directing his comments to McMath's family. "No one anywhere would wish this to happen to anyone. ... I hope you find some comfort in your religion."

"It's wrong for someone who made mistakes on your child to just call the coroner ... and not respect the family's feeling or rights," said Sandra Chatman, McMath's grandmother, outside the courtroom. "I know Jahi suffered, and it tears me up."

On Dec. 23, Grillo appointed Paul Graham Fisher, chief of child neurology at Stanford University School of Medicine, to conduct the examination of McMath.

In court Tuesday, Christmas Eve, Fisher concurred with a previous determination that McMath "meets all criteria for brain death."

He was followed by Robin Shanahan, a Children's Hospital pediatric neurologist who has performed more than 300 brain-death determinations, the Contra Costa Times reported.

She testified that on Dec. 11 she performed two tests confirming the diagnosis of hospital doctors that McMath was brain dead. Shanahan noted that one test proved the 13-year-old was unable to breathe on her own with a ventilator.

Before the latest courst decision, McMath's mother, announced her belief that "God has the final say in what happens to my daughter ... and the doctors don't know everything because if they did, my daughter wouldn't be brain dead right now."

In an open letter released last weekend, Winkfield asserted her daughter responds to her touch and still feels warm. Given time, she said, God will wake her daughter up.

"And when she does wake up, she's going to shake up a whole lot of people that didn't believe what I believe," Winkfield said. "I swear she will."