Girl Who Died of Organ Rejection Eulogized as Gallant, Courageous

Stormie Jones, the world’s first heart-liver transplant recipient, was eulogized Saturday as a gallant, courageous youngster who strived to live a normal life.

The 13-year-old girl who battled organ rejection, hepatitis and medical complications before her body rejected her transplanted heart last Sunday was laid to rest in a cemetery in this Ft. Worth suburb.

At a 45-minute funeral service, an estimated 400 mourners listened as Jerry Conley, a minister at West Freeway Church of Christ, celebrated her life.

“Everything was always upbeat with this very special child,” Conley said. “Stormie has conquered life more gallantly perhaps than any person you or I have ever known. Her illness was not her enemy.”

She was later buried at a private ceremony attended only by her family and close friends.

At the church service, White Settlement Mayor James Herring read a resolution approved by the City Council recognizing Stormie as an honored citizen.

Stormie died Nov. 10 at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh (Pa.), where she underwent her historic operation Feb. 14, 1984. She had been rushed to the hospital from her home with a sore throat and fever.

Doctors said Friday that Stormie died because her body had suddenly rejected the transplanted heart. The autopsy results surprised Stormie’s doctors, who said that an organ rejection so many years after a transplant was rare.

“No one expected to see any rejection in Stormie,” said Dr. F. Jay Fricker, her cardiologist. “After all, we had a track record of more than six years of never seeing any heart rejection.”

Fricker said that it would take months, if at all, for doctors to determine what caused the rejection.