( CNN ) -- While many people get their New Year 's countdown clocks ready , Jahi McMath 's family is scrambling as a darker deadline looms . A judge 's ruling will allow a hospital to disconnect life support machines at 5 p.m. Monday from the 13-year-old girl , whom doctors declared brain dead after she suffered complications from tonsil surgery earlier this month . Jahi 's family , who wants to transfer her somewhere else , told CNN affiliate KGO that they spent Sunday working the phones , trying to line up another option . The case has drawn national attention and sparked protests from some local leaders who say the hospital that treated her should have provided better care . Medical ethicists , meanwhile , say the high-profile case fuels a misperception : that `` brain death '' is somehow not as final as cardiac death , even though , by definition , it is . The case is `` giving the impression that dead people can come back to life , '' Arthur Caplan , director of the Division of Medical Ethics at NYU Langone Medical Center , told CNN last week . But Jahi 's family members maintain that they 're hoping for a miracle and want to transfer the girl from Children 's Hospital Oakland to another facility . A statement released by family members Saturday and provided to KGO says they are weighing several options . `` Our attorney is in discussions with two facilities that have expressed preliminary approval for accepting Jahi on a ventilator , '' the statement said . `` One is in Southern California , the other is in New York . '' Doug Straus , an attorney representing Children 's Hospital Oakland , said in a letter to the family 's lawyer Sunday that officials are still awaiting specifics from the family . `` To date , there has been no communication from any facility named by you regarding a transfer or requirements for transfer with any of the medical professionals at Children 's . The family has not identified any facility with which Children 's can have this dialogue . Nor have we been provided with a transportation plan or coroner authorization , '' he wrote . `` As your email and your statements about the facility in the Los Angeles area acknowledge , discussion about performing medical procedures upon a dead body presents unusual and complicated questions . Until there is a definite commitment by a facility to accept Jahi 's body upon specified terms , I do n't think I can tackle those issues . Please let me know if the family is able to identify a facility . '' When 'life support ' is really 'death support ' Jahi was declared brain dead by doctors at the hospital on December 12 , three days after tonsil surgery . Family members and hospital officials fought over her future in court . Last week , a judge ruled she was brain dead and urged both sides to work together to resolves the situation . But the sparring showed no sign of slowing over the weekend , with family members sharply criticizing the hospital 's handling of the matter . `` We wish to acknowledge that Jahi 's case , and our stance regarding her right to life , and her mother 's right to make decisions regarding her child , has stirred a vibrant , sometimes polarizing , national debate . This was never our intention , '' the family 's statement said . `` We have our strong religious convictions and set of beliefs and we believe that , in this country , a parent has the right to make decisions concerning the existence of their child : not a doctor who looks only at lines on a paper , or reads the cold black and white words on a law that says 'brain dead ' and definitely not a doctor who runs the facility that caused the brain death in the first place . '' The hospital 's statement Sunday said they were supporting Jahi 's family . `` We continue to do so despite their lawyer 's criticizing the very hospital that all along has been working hard to be accommodating to this grieving family , '' the hospital said . When routine surgeries go wrong . CNN 's Janet DiGiacomo , Elizabeth Landau , Dana Ford , Dan Simon , Michael Martinez and Carma Hassan contributed to this report .
# ##ra 's family wants to transfer her to another facility . The year - old suffered complications after tonsil surgery . Doctors and a hospital have declared her brain dead .