SAN FRANCISCO — The 13-year-old California girl who was declared brain dead after suffering complications from sleep apnea surgery is being cared for at a facility that shares her family’s belief that she still is alive, her uncle said Monday.

Jahi McMath’s family and their lawyer would not disclose where the 8th grader was taken on Sunday night after a weeklongs battle to prevent Children’s Hospital Oakland from removing her from the breathing machine that has kept her heart beating for 28 days.

Additional Photos

The Associated Press This undated file photo provided by the McMath family and Omari Sealey shows Jahi McMath.

The uncle, Omari Seeley, told reporters Monday that Jahi traveled by ground and that there were no complications in the transfer, suggesting she may still be in California. Nurses and doctors there are working to stabilize her with intravenous antibiotics, minerals and supplements while she remains on the ventilator, lawyer Christopher Dolan said.

The new facility has “been very welcoming with open arms. They have beliefs just like ours,” Sealey said. “They believe as we do…It’s a place where she is going to get the treatment she deserves.”

The nearly $50,000 in private donations the family has raised since taking the case public helped cover the carefully choreographed handoff to the critical care team and transportation to the new location, Sealey said. The facility, where Jahi is expected to remain for some time, is run by a charitable organization that so far hasn’t sought payment, Dolan said.

Both men refused to name the facility or reveal where it was located, saying they wanted to prevent staff members and the families of other patients from being harassed.

While the move ends what had been a very public and tense fight with the hospital, it also brings new challenges: caring for a patient whom three doctors have said is legally dead because, unlike someone in a coma, there is no blood flow or electrical activity in either her cerebrum or the brain stem that controls breathing.

The bodies of brain dead patients kept on ventilators gradually deteriorate, eventually causing blood pressure to plummet and the heart to stop, said Dr. Paul Vespa, director of neurocritical care at the University of California, Los Angeles, who has no role in McMath’s care. The process usually takes only days but can sometimes continue for months.

“The bodies are really in an artificial state. It requires a great deal of manipulation in order to keep the circulation going,” Vespa said.

Jahi underwent surgery at Children’s Hospital on Dec. 9 to treat severe sleep apnea, a condition where the sufferer’s breath stops or becomes labored while sleeping. Surgeons removed her tonsils and other parts of her nose and throat to widen the air passages.

While recovering in the Intensive Care Unit, she bled heavily from her mouth and nose and eventually went into cardiac arrest. Doctors at the hospital declared her brain dead three days later and moved on Dec. 20 to remove her from the ventilator.

Her mother, Nailah Winkfield, refusing to believe her daughter was dead as long as her heart was beating, went to court to stop the machine from being disconnected and twice won injunctions prohibiting the hospital from acting. On Friday, the two sides reached an agreement allowing Jahi to be transferred if Winkfield assumed responsibility for further complications.

Under a judge’s order, the hospital released Jahi to the coroner, who then released her into the custody of Winkfield.

Sealey, the girl’s uncle, said Monday that his sister is relieved her persistence paid off and “sounds happier.” He criticized Children’s Hospital for repeatedly telling Winkfield they did not need her permission to remove Jahi from the ventilator because the girl was dead.

“If her heart stops beating while she is on the respirator, we can accept that because it means she is done fighting,” he said. “We couldn’t accept them pulling the plug on her early.”

Dolan, the family’s lawyer, said Jahi’s condition suffered because the hospital refused to feed her once she was declared brain dead. The family plans to pursue a federal court lawsuit alleging that Children’s Hospital violated their religious and privacy rights. A hearing in the case is scheduled for Tuesday.

“She’s in very bad shape,” he said. “You would be too, if you hadn’t had nutrition in 26 days and were a sick little girl to begin with.”

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