| Written by Maria Elena Salinas |
| Monday, March 03 2003 |
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| It was refreshing to see young Yesica Santillan's smiling face on so many covers of newspapers instead of the face of Bush, Blix or Saddam. It gave me the feeling that at least for one or two days, the country showed that it still has the capacity to have compassion for a young woman whom we didn't even know existed until that week.
The tragedy of the Santillan family touched so many people because of Yesica's innocence and vulnerability. She could have been anyone's daughter fighting for her life after a deadly mistake that put her on the brink of death. The young Mexican girl's story was widely publicized, and it opened up a debate about medical malpractice, the organ-donor program and the ethics of trying to solve the problem with a second transplant. Unfortunately, it also fueled the anti-immigrant debate.
Yesica suffered from a rare malformation of the heart that didn't allow oxygen to get into her lungs. For three years, she had been waiting for a heart-lung transplant from a donor small enough to match her petite frame. It was her only chance of survival. By now, the world knows that when her big chance came along, the organs that were put into her body were from a donor with the wrong blood type. Someone did not bother to check. Or, someone checked but didn't realize it was not the same blood type. Who knows what really happened? The bottom line is that someone made a big mistake, and a young girl died because of it.
It's a sad story, no matter how you look at it. A poor family brings its daughter to the United States in hopes of saving her life. A compassionate bystander -- in this case, Mack Mahoney -- is touched by her case and starts a foundation to raise funds for her operation, a foundation that would also help other children with terminal illnesses. When the opportunity finally comes along to save her life, a medical error destroys the hope, the effort and the optimism.
It came as no surprise that, given the publicity her case generated, a new set of organs became available. There would be an effort to right a wrong. Even then, the country seemed to rally behind her and her family, hoping and praying for a new chance at life. Yesica did not make it. The picture of her smiling face was replaced by one of her connected to a life-support system that would eventually be turned off by the hospital that had botched her operation to begin with.
The signs of compassion also began to change as some began questioning the ethics of her case. Should she have received a second transplant when she had little chance of survival? Will another sick child die because of it? Should she have been on an organ-transplant list in the first place?
The attitude toward young Yesica changed in some people's hearts when they found out that her family had paid a smuggler to help them illegally cross the border into the United States, where she would have the best chance of survival. Those people no longer saw her as a young, innocent, sick child, but as an alien.
After Yesica's ordeal, it's important that we review the organ-transplant program to make sure there are new safeguards to assure that the recipient is compatible with the donor. There should probably even be a review of whether a person deserves a second chance with a new set of organs. I am sure there would be a difference of opinion, depending on whether your child was the one getting the second chance or the one waiting in line for the next set of organs.
What is really sad is that we have to debate whether a person's immigration status should determine if he or she should have a chance at life or be left to die. I am glad that, for now, there are still people with compassion. |
