Javona lived with her mother in Rhode Island and once a month would visit her father in New York. However, Joseph plans on fighting for full custody so she can decide Javona's fate. According to an attorney representing the mother, "this girl had been living with her mother her whole life, and her mother should determine her fate."
But Steven Miles, a medical ethicist, believes otherwise: "In a contest, the decision should go to who speaks with the most loving and intimate knowledge of the daughter...The mother may have been the main custodian, but that both parents signed consent forms speaks to both their involvement."
The surgery was a ventriculostomy, where doctors drill a hole in the brain and drain fluid into a cavity; however, Javona had an "extremely rare allergic reaction to a routine anesthesia agent."
