Related: US court: State can let beaten girl die

11-year-old Haleigh.(file photo)

    BEIJING, Jan. 20 (Xinhuanet) -- Officials in Massachusetts on Thursday reversed the court ruling that allows doctors to disconnect the breathing machines and feeding tubes for a girl whose brain was found partly sheared when she was hospitalized on September 11.

     This new change came after the 11-year-old Haleigh was found to have begun to breath on her own after surgeons inserted a tracheostomy tube in her larynx this week, said Denise Monteiro, a spokeswoman for the Department of Social Services.   

    She said talk of ending life support was on hold. " As her guardians we wouldn't even consider that now that we have new hope," she said, although she noted the girl remained in a vegetative state.

    On Tuesday Massachusetts' highest court ruled that Haleigh, who allegedly was beaten with a baseball bat by her step father, could be taken off life support as she was in a vegetative state with no hope of recovery.     

    Doctors have said the girl, whose body was covered with burns, cuts and bruises with her teeth broken when she was admitted to hospital, would die within a few days once life support is removed.

    Haleigh's death could lead to murder charges against her stepfather, Jason Strickland, 31, an auto mechanic accused of battering her but who had fought to keep her on life support.

    Strickland's wife -- the child's maternal aunt and sole legal guardian -- was found shot dead on September 22 with her grandmother in an apparent murder-suicide a day after police accused her of hitting Haleigh with a baseball bat. Enditem

    (Agencies)