MSNBC -- Not Good News..
MSNBC -- Not Good News..
"Jesica?s condition steadily deteriorated after the wrong blood type organs were transplanted. She suffered a heart attack Feb. 10 and a seizure on Sunday. Her body was rejecting the new organs because of the different blood types. Antibodies in her blood attacked the organs as foreign objects.
In that operation, Dr. James Jaggers implanted organs from a donor with type A blood, rather than Jesica?s O-positive, a mistake Duke officials say wasn?t discovered until the surgery was almost over.
Fulkerson said Jaggers wrongly assumed compatibility had been confirmed when he was offered the organs, and later failed to double-check that assumption, a violation of the hospital?s procedures.
Jesica?s body began to immediately reject the transplant. As her condition steadily worsened, she was placed on life support and suffered a stroke and kidney damage.
A BRAIN scan early Friday, less than 24 hours after the second transplant, showed Santillan?s brain had swelled and was bleeding.
?Yesterday after the transplant, we were all very hopeful,? said Dr. Karen Frush, Duke University Hospital?s medical director of children?s services. But now, ?the swelling in her brain is severe, severe to the point we fear it?s irreversible.?
Frush and Dr. William Fulkerson, the hospital?s chief executive officer, said additional tests were planned for Friday to confirm the diagnosis."
For those interested in the organ procuring process:
Organs for life
Organ donation involves many steps and individuals. For a successful transplant to take place, a series of detailed procedures must occur. Click on the arrows below for an overview of the process.
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National waiting list
National waiting list
The first step in the organ transplant process is for the patient to register with the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), which maintains a national waiting list on a centralized computer system. Because there are so few donated organs, all transplant patients must wait to receive an organ. Depending on their medical condition, patients may wait in the hospital or as an outpatient.
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Organ donated
Organ donated
When a dying person has been declared brain-dead, their family is asked about organ donation by a local organ procurement organization (OPO). If the deceased person has filled out an organ donation card or if their family consents to donation, the donor's information is entered into the national UNOS computer system. The OPO pays for all costs associated with donating organs.
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Search for a match
Search for a match
After an organ donor has been identified, UNOS begins making a list of patients who match that organ?s criteria. The computer program searches through the pool of patients waiting for organs and looks for a match based on a patient?s waiting time, severity of their condition, blood type, body size and distance between the donor and recipient. Ethnicity, gender, religion and financial status are not considered in the matching process. The patients are ranked in order of how closely they match the organ and the organ is then offered to the hospital monitoring the highest ranked patient.
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Retrieving the organ
Retrieving the organ
At this point, transplant specialists at the recipient?s hospital consider whether to accept the organ based on medical criteria. If the organ is accepted, the recipient's hospital sends a team to the donor's hospital to retrieve the organ. A transplant coordinator synchronizes efforts between the hospital surgery team and the retrieval team. In some cases, multiple organs are retrieved from the same donor and teams from several hospitals are involved in the retrieval process.
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Inspection process
Inspection process
After the retrieval team arrives at the donor hospital, the organ is inspected and specialists determine whether it meets the patient?s medical criteria. If it passes the inspection, the team notifies the transplant coordinator at the recipient?s hospital. While the organ is being retrieved, the recipient is notified that an organ is available. The recipient is brought into the operating room at their hospital, but not yet put under anesthesia. Only after the organ passes a final inspection is the recipient put under anesthesia.
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Timing is critical
Timing is critical
The organ is packed into a cooler and prepared for transport to the patient?s hospital. The team is in constant communication with the transplant coordinator to ensure the process is timed correctly in both locations. Timing is critical since many organs, such as the heart and lung, can only remain viable outside the body for a maximum of six hours. Livers can be preserved for up to 24 hours.
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Surgery performed
Surgery performed
Once the organ nears the recipient's hospital, the patient is prepared for surgery. A final check of the patient?s vital signs and immune system are performed before the transplant proceeds.
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Source: Mt. Sinai Hospital; Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network
The child and her family need our prayers..