Posted on 02/22/2003 9:57:57 AM PST by Houmatt
The teenage girl who was put through two heart-lung transplants because the first set of organs were the wrong blood type had lost all brain activity Saturday, and blood was no longer flowing to her brain, a hospital spokesman said.
The hospital had not yet declared Jesica Santillan brain dead, but her family was meeting with doctors to discuss the next step.
Duke University Medical Center spokesman Richard Puff said Saturday that tests had found blood was no longer flowing to the 17-year-old's brain and they registered no brain activity. He has said the time frame to declare brain death can take up to 24 hours after brain activity ends.
Though the newest organs transplanted into her small body were performing well, Jesica's brain began swelling and bleeding shortly after the second transplant, doctors at Duke University Medical Center said.
"The swelling in her brain is severe, severe to the point we fear it's irreversible," Dr. Karen Frush, the hospital's medical director of children's services, said Friday.
Jesica had been in a coma since the first transplant Feb. 7. Her health deteriorated as her body rejected the donor organs, which didn't match her O-possitive blood. By the time a match was found and new organs transplanted early Thursday, she was in critical condition.
Frush said there was no sure way to tell when the brain damage occurred. But Mack Mahoney, a family friend and Jesica's chief benefactor, said doctors told the family it was due to the time Jesica was connected to life support.
"Life support ruins kidneys, it ruins brains, it ruins all the organs of the body," he said.
Jesica's mother, Magdalena Santillan, said at a news conference Friday night that she believed hospital officials were not telling her the full story. She said then that she wasn't ready to remove her daughter from life support.
Jesica had a heart deformity that kept her lungs from getting oxygen into her blood. Relatives have said her family paid a smuggler to bring them from their small town near Guadalajara, Mexico, to the United States so she could get medical care.
In the first operation, Dr. James Jaggers implanted organs from a donor with type A blood that were incompatible with Jesica's O-positive blood.
Hospital chief executive Dr. William Fulkerson said Jaggers wrongly assumed compatibility had been confirmed when he was offered the organs, and later failed to double-check that assumption, a violation of the hospital's procedures.
Duke officials explained the error in a letter sent Friday to the United Network for Organ Sharing, which matches patients with donated organs.
The letter was signed by Fulkerson and Dr. Duane Davis, surgical director of Duke's lung transplant program. They said Jaggers declined the organs for one patient who was not ready for transplant and asked Carolina Donor Services, an organ procurement organization, whether they were available for Jesica.
CDS officials checked the data and called back, offering the organs to Davis, who declined because they were the wrong size for his patient. The organs were then offered to Jaggers for Jesica, the letter said.
Mahoney, a building contractor who started a charity in Jesica's name, complained that image-conscious doctors hesitated to take the blame for the bungled operation and lost precious time in the hunt for new organs.
"If she dies, they murdered her," he said.
Fulkerson pointed out that the second set of organs was found "in days" under two weeks, compared to the three years Jesica had spent on a waiting list before the first operation.
"I think we have been honest and forthcoming with Jesica's family about her medical care every step of the way and we have accepted the responsibility publicly," he said.
But if the transplanted organs are salvageable, perhaps they could be removed so someone else could get that second chance?
That would be nice, but I think the shock of being transplanted twice would kill the organs.
My prayers are with this poor girl and her family.
I wouldn't bet on that.
Trying to find some good in a very sad situation, at least she is now an ellegible Democrat - illegal, lost all brain function, and will soon be able to vote. Were it not for Democrat policies we would not be dealing with this unfortunate situation.
I wouldn't bet on that.
An earlier thread when the story came out indicated it was alll done with charity money...
You win today's award for low-life posts. You get a few extra points for not being able to spell.
Did European immigrants and their descendants get visas or permission from the original inhabitants before colonizing and occupying America? Of course not. Alliances with the immigrants were based on this: "If you can't beat them, join them." Branding people as criminal or evil who wish to live here sounds pretty hollow.
God really ISN'T on our side, when it comes to strictly enforcing immigration laws.
Our family is a transplant family--my brother-in-law is a heart transplant patient. We were told prior to him getting on the list what the risks were; when he was on the list, we were told what were the risks; when he got his new heart, we were told again what the risks were. Fortunately, he made it through, but it wasn't easy for our family. The fear of rejection is always there, although it's eased somewhat in the past couple years.
The one thing we've all done is sign our donor cards to make sure someone who needs a transplant will get one.
As that old saying goes: "Anyone may take life from a man, but no one death. A thousand gates stand open to it."
It's the same case with my brother-in-law. His doctors and the staff at the hospital were wonderful and continue to be. There are very few mistakes in transplants, and this one was elemental. Whether she would've survived the first transplant even with the correctly typed organs was still very risky. It isn't a tonsilectomy. But I also sympathize with her family--it was something we faced, and I wouldn't wish it on any family. I'm just very glad my brother-in-law survived and he's still with us. Our family is eternally grateful to the donor family for their sacrifice so that he could live.
And I'll relay what you've said to him--you're in the same club, you know.
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