Jesica Santillan, Date of Birth, Date of Death
TweetJesica Santillan
Mexican who died form surgical complications
Date of Birth: 
About Jesica Santillan
- Jesica Santillan (December 26, 1985 – February 22, 2003) was a Mexican national who died after an organ transplant operation in which she received the heart and lungs of a patient whose blood type did not match hers.
- Doctors at the Duke University Medical Center failed to check the compatibility before surgery began.
- Jesica, whose blood was type O-positive, had a heart condition (restrictive cardiomyopathy and secondary nonreactive pulmonary hypertension), that resulted in reduced blood perfusion in her lungs.
- She had been hospitalized at Duke University Hospital in Durham, North Carolina.
- On February 7, 2003, she received the heart and lung transplant.
- The new organs had been flown in from Boston.
- Blood test results proving that the organ blood type (type A) and Jesica's blood type (O-Positive) did not match came in just as the surgery was ending and she was given immo-suppression drugs.Jesica, two siblings, her mother Magdelena Santillan and her mother's boyfriend Melecio Huerta illegally entered the United States from Tamazula, Mexico, a town 275 miles west of Mexico City, so that she could receive medical treatment.
- Relatives have stated that the family paid a smuggler to get them across the border.On February 20, Jesica received a new heart and set of lungs after a new donor was found late on February 19, 2003.
- On February 21, she was declared brain dead.
- Her family was approached by the hospital to determine if her salvageable organs could be donated for use in other transplant patients.
- On the advice of their attorneys, the family declined.
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