DURHAM, N.C. (Feb. 20) - Doctors located an organ donor early Thursday for a 17-year-old girl clinging to life after she received a heart and lungs that didn't match her blood type, a spokeswoman said.
Jesica Santillan was to undergo organ transplant surgery Thursday morning at Duke University Hospital.
The procedure has a 50-50 success rate, said Renee McCormick, a spokeswoman for a charity that is helping pay the girl's medical bills.
McCormick called the new organs an ''incredibly good match.''
''We are elated,'' she told CNN. ''The family is overjoyed.''
The organ was found at 1 a.m. Thursday.
McCormick said she didn't know who donated the organs, but they were donated directly to Jesica, who mistakenly received organs incompatible with her type O-positive blood during a transplant Feb. 7 at Duke University Hospital.
Her condition steadily deteriorated after the botched operation, and she suffered a heart attack Feb. 10 and a seizure on Sunday. A machine has kept her heart and lungs going. A scan Wednesday found no signs of brain damage, McCormick said.
Jesica's body was rejecting the new organs because of the different blood types. Antibodies in her blood attacked the organs as foreign objects.
The lead surgeon said Wednesday he believed appropriate checks were made before the organs were offered to the girl.
''I am heartbroken about what happened to Jesica. My focus has been on providing her with the heart and lungs she needs so she could lead a normal life,'' Dr. James Jaggers said in a statement.
Jaggers said he told the girl's parents immediately after the operation that an error had occurred, but the statement didn't indicate when he realized it happened.
The organs were flown from Boston to Durham and included paperwork correctly listing the donor's type-A blood, said Sean Fitzpatrick of the New England Organ Bank of Newton, Mass., which sent the first set of heart and lungs.
Two Duke surgeons who had patients with type-A positive blood declined the organs but a third doctor requested them for Jesica, according to Carolina Donor Services, an organ procurement organization. The organization did not identify the doctor.
Duke hospital officials had no comment Wednesday on why doctors sought the type-A organs for Jesica.
Jesica, who is from a small town near Guadalajara, Mexico, needed the transplant because a heart deformity kept her lungs from getting oxygen into her blood. Doctors said she would have died within six months without a transplant.
AP-NY-02-20-03 0754EST
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