Teen girl near death after receiving wrong organs

[Chocoholic]

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...ansplant_error

A 17 year-old girl from Mexico received a set of heart and lungs that were the wrong blood type for her and she isn't expected to last more than a few days, unless another donor can be found. How awful! My heart and prayers go out to her family.

[*PinkLady*]

Oh, that's terrible. I hope another donor can be found.

[Halex]

That's terrible. I hope that girl doesn't die. 17 is too young to die. I really hope they find another donor and make sure that the blood type does match. I can't believe doctors could make that kind of mistake. You'd think they'd go through everything extra carefully before making such a drastic decision. But, I guess even professionals can screw up.

[Chocoholic]

I hope a miracle happens and they find another donor too. I can't imagine going through what this family went through, finally getting the call they've been waiting so long for, only to end up with the great possibility of losing their daughter.

[Tuesday Weld]

Oh,I know,poor girl I feel so badly for her and her family.I hope they can help her.

[RollerGirl]

Oh! I heard about this. God, I hope help comes for her real soon..

[TJL]

That is absolutely rediculous.

Everyone involved with this unfortunate mistake should be ashamed.

[Kristina]

Aww thats so terrible, I hope they find a donor really fast!

[Kay Scarpetta]

I heard about that. It's so sad

[friend to IDOJ lover]

yah i remember seeing that poor girl.....GOD bless that family and may we all keep her in our prayers

[~*Hannah_Lee*~]

Originally posted by TJL
That is absolutely rediculous.

Everyone involved with this unfortunate mistake should be ashamed.

I agree. This is such a sad story. I can't believe something like this happened.

[Janice]

DURHAM, N.C. (Feb. 20) - Jesica Santillan's newest heart was beating on its own Thursday after her second heart-lung transplant, supporters said, almost two weeks after she was mistakenly given incompatible organs that nearly cost her life.

Jesica, who has type O-positive blood, was given a heart and lungs from a donor with type A blood in a transplant Feb. 7 at Duke University Hospital. Her condition steadily deteriorated as her body rejected the new organs.

A second set of organs was located late Wednesday and transplanted into Jesica in a four-hour operation Thursday morning, hospital spokesman Jeffrey Molter said.

Renee McCormick, spokeswoman for a charity raising money for Jesica's care, said her heart was beating on its own afterward. Molter said she was still breathing with the help of a ventilator and was in critical condition, which is standard in such cases.

''This is a very serious surgery,'' Molter said. ''We are hopeful that these organs will support her.''

The procedure has a 50-50 success rate, said Mack Mahoney, a leader in fund-raising efforts to pay for the girl's medical care.

''So far, so good,'' McCormick said. ''Her parents feel some relief right now. Everyone is incredibly hopeful and we're just so pleased, so thankful.''

Family supporters said they had no information about the donor of the second set of organs. ''Hopefully, the donor family will come forward and we can get these families reunited at some point in time,'' McCormick said.

Lloyd Jordan of Carolina Donor Services said the donor family had requested anonymity. He said the donation was not ''directed'' - that is, the family did not specifically request that the organs be given to Jesica.

''We consider all donors and their families to be heroes,'' Jordan said. ''These are the people who make the gift of life possible.''

Jesica, who is from a small town near Guadalajara, Mexico, needed a transplant because a heart deformity kept her lungs from getting oxygen into her blood. Doctors said she would have died within six months without it.

The fact that a new set of compatible organs became available as Jesica neared death was ''an amazingly good thing,'' Molter said. He noted that 80 percent of people awaiting transplants die before organs can be found.

''I think the word is getting out about organ donations. And in some ways, I think Jesica is a very lucky little girl,'' he said.

Heart-lung transplants have been routine since the mid-1980s. About 70 percent of recipients survive at least one year, and 40 percent are still alive after five years. Common causes of death include failure of the transplanted organs and lung inflammation.

Jesica was not out of the woods after Thursday's operation. She suffered kidney damage and may have brain damage or paralysis from the machines used to keep her alive in the two weeks after the first transplant, Mahoney said.

''We'll have to deal with those if they occur,'' he said.

Dr. James Jaggers, lead surgeon on the first transplant, performed the second operation Thursday, and Mahoney said he doesn't blame the doctor for the failure of the first.

''We have faith in the surgeon,'' he said. ''We feel there was a grave mistake made. We do not question his skill as a surgeon.''

Molter said several times that Duke acknowledges its mistake.

''We do apologize again for the blood type mismatch,'' he said. ''That did in fact make her condition worse.''

Jaggers said Wednesday he believed appropriate checks were made before the first set of organs was offered to the girl. After that surgery, the hospital added another level of verification for organ compatibility, and Molter said the new procedures were followed before Thursday's surgery.

A spokeswoman for the United Network for Organ Sharing, which matches organs and recipients, said her organization has asked Duke, along with the two organ procurement agencies that helped arrange the donation, to draft written accounts of the events leading to Jesica's transplant surgery.

The Richmond, Va.-based UNOS will review Duke's written accounts, along with those from the organ procurement agencies, and make a private determination about the sequence of events. Spokeswoman Anne Paschke said recommendations are made for corrective action, not punishment.

Duke must also answer to the agency that accredits hospitals, which investigates unusual deaths that might signal a problem with the hospital's system.

Those probes are likely to take several weeks.

AP-NY-02-20-03 1146EST

Copyright 2003 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.

[AnaheimPMWitch]

I heard about that to its really sad I hope they find a new donor soon

[Chocoholic]

Wow, that's GREAT news! Thanks for posting that info, Janice. I pray that girl gets better.

[Tuesday Weld]

I really hope that this new transplant works out for her