Services Planned for Girl Who Died After 2nd Transplant
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COMANCHE, Tex. — Members of Mary Cheatham’s family gathered Saturday to make funeral arrangements for the 17-year-old who died Friday in Pittsburgh while undergoing her second heart-liver transplant in 72 hours.
The first operation last Tuesday failed because the donor organs, which came from a 22-year-old Ohio man, were too large and caused Mary’s blood pressure to fluctuate, doctors said.
Hours after the operation was completed, doctors opened her chest cavity twice in an attempt to give the organs more room, but by Thursday they had decided another operation was the only solution.
Liver transplant pioneer Dr. Thomas Starzl and heart surgeon Dr. Henry Bahnson flew to Fayette, Ala., to retrieve the organs of a 13-year-old brain-dead boy for the second operation. But the second heart failed to function after it was implanted.
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