Transplant Official Addresses Girl’s Death
The head of a group that helped locate organs for the Mexican teenager who died as a result of a bungled transplant says his organization didn’t know her blood type before it released the heart and lungs. Jesica Santillan died after a second set of organs was transplanted at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C.
Jesica had type-O blood and the organs used in the first operation were type A. Correctly matched organs were implanted two days before she died.
“We could have requested her blood type, and I wish we had,” Lloyd Jordan of Carolina Donor Services told CBS’ “60 Minutes.”
More to Read
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.