Girl, 17, suffers brain damage

THE teenage girl who underwent a second heart-lung transplant after the first was botched has suffered severe brain damage , hospital officials said yesterday.

A brain scan early yesterday, less than 24 hours after the second transplant, showed 17-year-old Jesica Santillan’s brain had swelled and was bleeding.

“After the transplant we were all very hopeful,” said Dr Karen Frush, medical director of children’s services at Duke University Medical Centre. But now, “the swelling in her brain is severe, severe to the point we fear it’s irreversible”.