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No sign of rejection' after teen's heart-lung transplant
After the surgery, Jesica Santillan was off life support. "Her heart is doing its job and her lungs are working," said family spokesman Mack Mahoney. He said there was "no sign of rejection."
At a news conference Thursday afternoon, Dr. Duane Davis, surgical director of Duke's lung transplant program, said Jesica remained in critical condition and that it was too early to tell when she would be out of danger.
Asked how much time she'll need, Davis said: "We can't tell you. We don't know how much she will recover, if she will recover, we just hope she will," said Davis.
Before the surgery, doctors said it would give the 17-year-old girl a 50 percent chance of survival. Without transplant surgery Jesica would die, doctors had said.
Jesica first underwent transplant surgery February 7 at Duke, but she was given organs with type A blood that did not match her type O-positive blood. Her body immediately began to reject the organs.
Jesica needed the transplant because of a heart deformity that kept her lungs from getting oxygen into her blood.
Family, friends, and the transplant team were devastated by the error, particularly because of the difficulty of getting donated organs.
Knowing that time was running out for the girl he calls "the world's sweetheart," Mahoney sprang into action to get the word out to the media that Jesica needed a matching donor.
People responded to organ banks with a barrage of offers to help. The prayers of Jesica's supporters were answered when a compatible heart-lung set became available early Thursday. Doctors told the elated family the organs "were an incredibly good match."
The donation was not a directed one, meaning the victim's family had not specified the organs be used for Jesica, a Carolina Donor Services spokesman said.
"It's a terrible thing for our child to profit from (the donor family's) heartache," Mahoney said, adding, "if you have a loved one and you lose them, it's at least wonderful to know they can live on in the body of another."
After the nearly five-hour surgery Thursday, Jesica was well enough to be removed from all life support. Duke doctors said she was being monitored "extremely closely" in the intensive care unit.
Dr. William Fulkerson, the chief executive officer of Duke University Hospital, said the transplant staff believed it was using matching organs at the time of the first operation, but "that was incorrect."
The hospital has launched an investigation and has implemented additional safeguards to prevent such errors in the future. For Thursday's surgery, Fulkerson said three physicians confirmed the type match before the transplant.
"I am heartbroken about what happened to Jesica," said Dr. James Jaggers, who operated on her both times. "My focus has been on providing her with the heart and lungs she needs so she could lead a normal life."
Anne Paschke, spokeswoman at United Network for Organ Sharing, said there are critical shortages of organ donors through the United States and finding a donor for a heart-lung procedure is an uphill battle.
UNOS administers the nation's only organ procurement and transplantation network.
Paschke said that according to the latest statistics, in 2001 and 2002 there were only 55 heart-lung transplants nationwide, and as of February 7, there were 197 people on the waiting list for the procedure.
Doctors on Thursday praised the organ donor and said nearly 80,000 people are currently on waiting lists for organs.
"(I) hope that we can use this event, as tragic as it has been, to re-emphasize the need for organ donations in the country," said Fulkerson.
http://www.cnn.com/2003/HEALTH/02/20/transplant.error/index.html
MORONS, IDIOTS, IMBECILES... [:(!]
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Victim of botched transplant declared dead [:(]
Hospital: 'We very much regret these tragic circumstances' [:(!]
"As of approximately 5 p.m., she is no longer on a respirator," a hospital spokeswoman told CNN. Santillan was declared dead by doctors after a series of tests determined she had no brain function, the hospital said in a statement.
"All of us at Duke University Hospital are deeply saddened by this," said Dr. William Fulkerson, chief executive of the hospital. "We want Jesica's family and supporters to know that we share their loss and their grief. We very much regret these tragic circumstances."
Santillan had been clinging to life since shortly after her first transplant February 7, when she was given organs from a donor with an incompatible blood type -- type A, which did not match her O-positive blood -- causing her weakened body to reject them. The hospital has acknowledged that her surgeon, Dr. James Jaggers, erred in not checking the blood type before performing the first transplant, according to The Associated Press.
Another heart and lungs became available, and Santillan underwent her second transplant Thursday.
On Friday, the hospital said the Mexican teen's new heart and lungs were "working well" but that the results of a CAT scan performed at 3 a.m. EST revealed she has experienced "significant swelling and bleeding in her brain, which is life-threatening." Doctors inserted a tube in an attempt to relieve the swelling and repeated tests Saturday morning.
The critically ill teen had been at the center of a dispute pitting Mack Mahoney, Santillan's self-proclaimed godfather, against Duke University Medical Center.
Doctors believe the brain injury was caused by time she spent on heart-lung machines, Mahoney said.
Mahoney maintains that after the unsuccessful transplant, he was forced to battle the hospital's administration because it didn't want unflattering publicity about the error.
He claims the hospital was more concerned about protecting its reputation than trying to find suitable donor organs from a compatible blood group.
The delay damaged Santillan's brain and might have cost her her life, he charged. The administration needed to say it made a mistake "and not let a child lay on life support 10 or 14 days knowing that it's ruining her brain, it's ruining the other organs," he said.
The hospital denies the allegation, saying it did everything possible to correct the error and give Santillan the best possible care.
Doctors had said the second surgery would give the teen a 50 percent chance of survival. Without it, she would die, doctors had said.
Two and half years ago, Mahoney set up a foundation in the girl's behalf after reading a newspaper article about how she needed a transplant because of a heart deformity that kept her lungs from getting oxygen into her blood. He has acted as the family's spokesman because Santillan's parents speak only Spanish.
http://www.cnn.com/2003/HEALTH/02/22/transplant.error/index.html
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