A girl dies after a court battle to keep her alive

A 9-year-old Texas girl who had been the subject of a legal battle to keep her breathing died Friday evening after her heart stopped, said a family lawyer. Child to Twitter.

"According to Payton's parents, his heart stopped beating alone" said his family's lawyer, Justin Moore. "She has not been removed from the support of life."

Lawyer Justin Moore told NBC News that a statement from his family would be released Saturday night. A representative of the Cook Children's Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas, where Payton Summons was kept alive, did not immediately respond to NBC News's request for information.

According to a statement released earlier this month by the hospital, the girl was considered to be brain dead under Texas law.

"A person is considered dead when they have suffered irreversible loss of all brain function," hospital officials said, explaining why they had decided to remove her from the situation.

But Payton's parents, citing religious objections, appealed. On Friday afternoon, Texas' second court of appeal allowed them to keep the girl under vital surveillance until Monday, announced KXAS, an affiliate of NBC News, in Dallas-Fort Worth.

It was a short victory.

"Known to everyone as full of determination and fighting, she fought until her heart was free." Moore tweeted. "After winning a big victory at the court of appeal today, she left us a few hours later and showed us how to fight against probabilities."

Payton had an undetected cancerous growth called Wilms' tumor that led to a cardiac arrest on September 25, according to the Cook Children's Medical Center. A hospital lawyer told KXAS that the growth had crushed the heart and lungs of the girl.

Hospital doctors were able to restore his heart rate, hospital officials said.

But his breath was only recharged with the help of a ventilator, Cook's leaders said, prompting them to declare her dead and to warn her parents that Payton would be removed from the survival system.