New transplant for girl, 17, facing death after blunder with wrong blood type

The teenage girl facing death because of a heart-lung transplant blunder with organs that did not match her blood type had a second transplant yesterday after doctors flew through the night to obtain new organs.

Jesica Scantillan was in a critical but stable condition after the four-hour operation and her new heart was beating unaided. Her family said they were "in a state of relief" that the 17-year-old had been given a second chance.

Doctors feared Jesica had just days to live after erroneously being given a heart and lungs from a type A donor on 7 February. Jesica is a type O positive and her body immediately began to reject the new organs. Three days after the operation, at Duke University Hospital, North Carolina, she suffered a heart attack and has been unconscious since, being kept alive by a machine.

Mack Mahoney, a North Carolina builder who established a foundation to help to pay for Jesica's treatment, said he had been told early yesterday that doctors from Duke had found another donor and were flying back from California with the organs.

"I was told in the wee hours that they were out there retrieving them," said Mr Mahoney. He said the doctors said the operation had a 50 per cent chance of success. He told reporters: "Thank you for helping the world hear my plea for this child's life. We pray for the donor's family and we thank them from the bottom of our hearts that they had the foresight to make the donation to Jesica."

The girl, who comes from a small town near Guadalajara, Mexico, was smuggled into the United States three years ago by her mother who thought her daughter had a better chance of treatment.

The teenager has restrictive cardiomyopathy, which has left her with an enlarged, weakened heart and lungs. Doctors at Duke believed she had no more than six months to live without a transplant.