Family May Sue Over Bad Transplant

Family and friends planned private and public memorial services for the Mexican teenager who survived a botched heart-lung transplant but died two days after receiving a second set of organs.

Meanwhile, medical examiners are trying to determine what ultimately killed Jesica Santillan. A lawyer for the 17-year-old's family said an autopsy planned Monday was appropriate.

"We just want to make sure we know what the cause of death was," attorney Kurt Dixon said Sunday. "If there's going to be legal action down the road, you want to have a definite cause of death. You don't want to speculate about that."

And will Dixon advise the Santillan family to sue?

"I'm not going to advise them either way," he told CBS News Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith Monday. "That's going to be their decision."

When asked what sort of monetary damages the family might seek, however, Dixon seemed to be leaning toward a suit.

"That's going to be a question that hopefully 12 North Carolina people will answer," he said. "When you lose a loved one, our system, any system, can't replace that. A loss of life is irreplaceable. But money damages are the only thing that we can do. That's what we're left with. We can't bring her back."

Two memorial services — one public and another private — were scheduled for Tuesday, said Mack Mahoney, a family friend and Jesica's chief benefactor. He said he believed the family would return her body to Mexico for burial.

On Sunday, family, friends and strangers gathered at a church prayer service and at a vigil outside the hospital where Jesica died.

Some who knew Jesica only from news stories joined her former teachers and parishioners at Our Lady of the Rosary Church for a Mass in Spanish.

"The least we can do is come to pray for her and her family." said John Montoya, who came with his wife, children and parents.

Candles burned beside a statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the patron saint of Mexico. Below was a picture of Jesica dressed as the saint for her role in the church children's play in December.

In Durham, more than 60 people prayed the rosary across the street from Duke University Medical Center. They lit candles and released white balloons to symbolize Jesica's freedom from pain.

Jesica, whose own heart had a deformity that kept her lungs from getting oxygen into her blood, died Saturday.

She never regained consciousness after her first heart-lung transplant, which her body rejected because the organs didn't match her blood type. Doctors said they didn't check the compatibility before surgery began Feb. 7.

By the time a matching set of organs was implanted Thursday, she was near death. The new organs performed well, but Jesica's brain had swelled and was bleeding Friday.

Dixon said doctors took Jesica off life support before her family could contact other physicians to get a second opinion on her condition. Her family also refused permission for some of Jesica's organs to be offered to other patients awaiting transplants.

"I think that was unfair to ask them that question, because an autopsy had been requested early on, typical in case like this," Dixon said. "I would have advised them to do that. Of course, you need the vital organs for the autopsy to have any meaning."

Dr. James Jaggers, the transplant surgeon, said in a taped statement released Saturday that he had hoped Jesica would be "one of those lucky few."

"Unfortunately, in this case, human errors were made during the process" to match the organs with the patient, he said. "I hope that we, and others, can learn from this tragic mistake."

Jesica's family had paid a smuggler to bring them from their small town near Guadalajara, Mexico, to the United States so she could get the medical care, relatives have said.