Word: duking
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...girl. There was the wealthy philanthropist Mack Mahoney, who read of Jesica's plight in a North Carolina paper and made it his mission to get her a heart-and-lung transplant to try to save her life. Finally, there was the venerable institution where the story would unfold, Duke University Hospital, renowned for the brilliance and dexterity of its surgeons...
...benefactor, Mahoney, has emerged from the ordeal embittered and more than a little hoarse from fielding media interviews. Mahoney says Duke officials misled Jesica's parents, who barely speak English, about the gravity of Jesica's condition. "Dumb Mexicans--that's how they saw [the Santillans]," he growls. He says he had to fight the hospital to make it admit to--and attempt to fix--the mistake. He also claims that Duke officials refused to let him see the girl when they learned he was taking her story to the press. Says the hospital's CEO, Dr. William Fulkerson...
...publicity had its effect. And a call that Senator Elizabeth Dole made to Mahoney asking about Jesica--when he happened to be meeting with Duke's administrators--probably didn't hurt. Duke officials publicly accepted responsibility for the botched operation last Monday. Three days later, a new set of organs, for which recipients typically have to wait a year or two, made its way to Jesica. But it came two weeks too late. Jesica's latest set of heart and lungs was working well, but the trauma had caused irreparable brain damage...
...Jesica seems to have leapfrogged the entire list. Carolina Donor Services says the organs were not directed to Jesica by the donor family. The likely answer is that the urgency of Jesica's need pushed her to the front of the line, which is accepted practice. Duke's error may have cost others as well: those waiting for just one of those organs...
...hospital's handling of the disaster has cost Duke whatever gratitude it had earned from the Santillans for writing off the 20% of Jesica's surgery not covered by insurance. On Saturday, the Santillans argued with doctors to keep her on life support, but the absence of brain activity is a legal definition of death, and the machines were disconnected. The family is not donating any of her organs. Earlier in the week, Jesica's mother Magdalena had thanked the media for keeping the spotlight on the case. Without sustained attention, she suggested, "they would have let my baby...