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American Morning

Transplant Update

Aired February 21, 2003 - 09:19   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: You've probably heard about the botched transplant operation down at Duke University. You might know that Jesica Santillan was given a second chance yesterday, with a second transplant, where the transplant -- with organs that actually matched her blood type.
Let's check in with Elizabeth Cohen, who has an update on her condition.

I know going into this, Elizabeth, one doctor said she is sick as any person could be and still be alive. How is she doing this morning?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, unfortunately, Paula, there's been a complication. They did a CAT scan very early this morning, and what they found she has bleeding and swelling in the brain, and so they're going to try to drain that with a tube. This is definitely not a good thing to have happen. As one pediatric transplant surgeon said to me, this is a bad sign. Duke University said this is life-threatening, and they said, we keep Jessica and her family in our prayers.

Her family is with her bedside now. We're going to show you some photos that were taken of her last night. She's in the pediatric intensive care unit here at Duke Hospital. She is also on dialysis and a respirator. Her family knew and surgeons knew that going into this second operation that things were going to be tough.

This is a young woman who has been through quite a lot. She was born with a life-threatening heart abnormality, and then had to have a first heart-lung transplant which, as we all know, was mismatched, so that her body tried to reject it. She then had to get a second one. So this young woman has a real fight in front of her -- Paula.

ZAHN: What else are they telling you about what the toughest part of this challenge is going to be?

COHEN: She has many challenges in front of her. When someone gets a new heart and lungs, all of her other organs have to sort of come into line, so to speak. And what she's experiencing, from what we're told, is swelling in her whole body, and that can, unfortunately, lead to multiorgan failure, and that's what they're trying to prevent from happening. Another thing they have to keep on the lookout for is infection, because she's on a good deal of immunosuppression drugs.

ZAHN: She fights for her life. There is still a lot of second- guessing going on at Duke University how it was that mismatched organs that didn't match her blood type was put into her in the first place. Is there anything new on that?

COHEN: No. Yesterday, they said what happened is the doctor got the call from the organ bank, that there were a heart and lungs ready for Jesica, and he assumed they were of the right blood type. Even when they flew up to New England to get them from the donor's body, they continued to assume that, they did not double-check it. There are various times in the process of checking and double-checking, and he did not do that, and Duke said they are obviously devastated by what happened, and they put in many other layers of checking for future operations.

In fact, for the second operation, three different doctors had to confirm that the blood types matched -- Paula.

ZAHN: Elizabeth Cohen, we'll be checking in with you throughout the morning for the very latest. Sorry to hear about that bad turn of events.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired February 21, 2003 - 09:19   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: You've probably heard about the botched transplant operation down at Duke University. You might know that Jesica Santillan was given a second chance yesterday, with a second transplant, where the transplant -- with organs that actually matched her blood type.
Let's check in with Elizabeth Cohen, who has an update on her condition.

I know going into this, Elizabeth, one doctor said she is sick as any person could be and still be alive. How is she doing this morning?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, unfortunately, Paula, there's been a complication. They did a CAT scan very early this morning, and what they found she has bleeding and swelling in the brain, and so they're going to try to drain that with a tube. This is definitely not a good thing to have happen. As one pediatric transplant surgeon said to me, this is a bad sign. Duke University said this is life-threatening, and they said, we keep Jessica and her family in our prayers.

Her family is with her bedside now. We're going to show you some photos that were taken of her last night. She's in the pediatric intensive care unit here at Duke Hospital. She is also on dialysis and a respirator. Her family knew and surgeons knew that going into this second operation that things were going to be tough.

This is a young woman who has been through quite a lot. She was born with a life-threatening heart abnormality, and then had to have a first heart-lung transplant which, as we all know, was mismatched, so that her body tried to reject it. She then had to get a second one. So this young woman has a real fight in front of her -- Paula.

ZAHN: What else are they telling you about what the toughest part of this challenge is going to be?

COHEN: She has many challenges in front of her. When someone gets a new heart and lungs, all of her other organs have to sort of come into line, so to speak. And what she's experiencing, from what we're told, is swelling in her whole body, and that can, unfortunately, lead to multiorgan failure, and that's what they're trying to prevent from happening. Another thing they have to keep on the lookout for is infection, because she's on a good deal of immunosuppression drugs.

ZAHN: She fights for her life. There is still a lot of second- guessing going on at Duke University how it was that mismatched organs that didn't match her blood type was put into her in the first place. Is there anything new on that?

COHEN: No. Yesterday, they said what happened is the doctor got the call from the organ bank, that there were a heart and lungs ready for Jesica, and he assumed they were of the right blood type. Even when they flew up to New England to get them from the donor's body, they continued to assume that, they did not double-check it. There are various times in the process of checking and double-checking, and he did not do that, and Duke said they are obviously devastated by what happened, and they put in many other layers of checking for future operations.

In fact, for the second operation, three different doctors had to confirm that the blood types matched -- Paula.

ZAHN: Elizabeth Cohen, we'll be checking in with you throughout the morning for the very latest. Sorry to hear about that bad turn of events.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com