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Elizabeth Cohen: Turning off respirator up to doctor
(CNN) -- Medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen has been in Durham, North Carolina, reporting on the story of 17-year-old Jesica Santillan, who underwent a second heart-lung transplant at Duke University Hospital after the first was rejected by her body because the organs had an incompatible blood type. Cohen talked to CNN anchor Heidi Collins Saturday morning on "Weekend House Call" about Jesica's dire situation. COLLINS: Elizabeth, tell us, first of all, what is the latest on Jesica's condition? COHEN: The latest is that Duke University tells CNN that they did an EEG yesterday and they saw no brain activity. They also did a scan of the blood flow to her brain and they saw that there was no blood flowing to the brain. The family has told reporters that doctors have told them that Jesica is brain-dead and that they need to do more tests today to confirm that. (Videotape begins) MACK MAHONEY, Santillan family spokesman: If there's no change, then Jesica is officially brain dead, OK? At that time, he'll be 100 percent sure. COHEN: As Jesica's condition has deteriorated, so has the relationship between Duke University and the Santillan family. Jesica's friends and family have become increasingly frustrated with Duke University, even confronting a Duke official at a press conference. They're not just angry because of the original mistake, a transplant surgery February 7 where Duke admits it gave Jesica organs that were type A when she's type O. The family says Duke told them immediately about the mistake but didn't discuss it publicly for 10 days. That, they say, was costly, as media attention about the botched surgery would have helped them find another set of organs sooner. MAHONEY: To me, if the little girl dies, if she dies, they murdered her. COHEN: Duke says they've searched earnestly for organs and fought hard to save Jesica's life. DR. WILLIAM FULKERSON: I and our entire Duke family have been devastated by this. (Videotape ends) COHEN: Duke University says that she has not officially been declared brain-dead yet. Let's talk a little bit about what it means to be brain-dead. That means that there is no brain activity and that it's irreversible. The way that it works is that brain-dead is dead. Brain-dead is legally dead. When someone is brain-dead, the doctor declares them dead and it's the doctor who makes that decision to turn off the respirator. It is not the family's decision. I just want to add in here, Jesica Santillan is Mexican. She came to this country three years ago. Her mother works. In fact, she has health insurance and insurance paid for her first transplant. And as I understand it, medical centers ... are allowed to do five percent of their transplants given to people who are not American and even if they are illegal immigrants. Jesica was born in Mexico 17 years ago with a heart ailment and it was not treated in the way that it would have been treated in the United States, as I understand it. And she became very ill. And she's been on the organ transplant -- she was on the organ transplant list for three years before getting that first set of organs. She was not in great shape before that first surgery. She weighed 85 pounds. And remember, she's 17 years old. Doctors said she only had months to live without that transplant and, of course, as we all know, that first transplant was done with organs of the wrong type and then two weeks later they did a transplant with organs of the right type. I do think it's interesting that as I talked to the family, they seemed really less angry at the doctor than at the Duke administration. I mean the doctor obviously made a terrible error and he said to them, "Do you want me to continue being your doctor or do you want to switch to some else?" And they asked him to stay on the case. They said they did not question his surgical capabilities. They are furious with Duke because they think that they have not handled this situation well. To summarize Jesica's condition, Duke says that an EEG shows no brain activity and a blood flow scan shows no blood flow to the brain. The family says they will be doing more tests today.
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