DURHAM, N.C. — The same Catholic virtues of faith and hope that helped Jesica Santillán's family through her botched heart-lung transplant is helping them deal with the loss of the 17-year-old Mexican girl.

Jesica died Feb. 22 from complications caused by a second transplant.

“As you would expect, it's very devastating and it's been a hard ordeal for them,” said Franciscan Father Jacek Orzechowski, associate pastor of Immaculate Conception parish in Durham who was called in to serve as the Santillán family's chaplain during the ordeal. “They had such high hopes over three years and when this happened, it's not easy to accept.”

“But they are people of faith,” he continued. “God will give them the strength to move on. They're beautiful people and they're not alone.”

The family's “faith, their Catholicism, has been their foundation through all of this,” said Renee McCormick of Jesica's Hope Chest, a charity founded to help Jesica's family pay for the operation.

McCormick had said soon after the second operation that the girl's mother had “gone through all of the saints and said the rosary at Jesica's bedside.”

On Feb. 21, even though Jesica's new heart and lungs were working well, the stress of the second operation was too much. The blood thinners that helped her survive until the new organs were found had caused her brain to start hemorrhaging. Although doctors tried to save her, neurological exams the next day showed she had no brain activity and Duke declared her “brain dead” at 1:05 p.m.

The family hoped something more could be done before the hospital removed Jesica from life support. But the hospital kept her heart beating only until after the family had one last chance to be with her and have last rites administered.

On Feb. 26 there were two memorial services held at the Louisburg College Chapel. Jesica's family was planning to bring her body back to Mexico for burial.

Chance for Survival

Jesica's story began soon after her second birthday on Christmas Day 1987 in Tamazula de Giordiano, a small town near Guadalajara, Mexico, when her parents, Magdalena Santillán and Melecio Huerta, began noticing that she was always getting tired. However, things were fine until she was 12, when she started passing out.

Doctors told the Santilláns that Jesica was suffering from restrictive cardiomyopathy — her heart ventricles that pumped blood from her weak lungs to her arteries were too rigid so only small amounts of blood were getting oxygenated — and if Jesica did not get a heart-lung transplant soon, she would die.

Since the waiting list for transplants was very long, family members in Mexico and the United States scraped together the thousands of dollars necessary for Magdalena and Jesica, then 14, to go to the United States so Jesica might have a chance of surviving.

“We arrived illegally,” Magdalena told Spanish TV station Univisión.

Although the mother and daughter were accosted by armed bandits who threatened to rape them if they did not give them all their money, they survived the dangerous 4,000-mile journey and arrived unharmed in Louisburg, a suburb of Durham.

Once they arrived, Magdalena used her time off from work to go begging on the street to raise money for Jesica's operation. But she did not raise much before turning to her church, Our Lady of the Rosary Mission, for help. Immaculate Heart of Mary Sister Betty Bullen said the parish then adopted the Santilláns and worked desperately to raise money for her operation.

With the help of Sister Bullen, the parish was able to help them find housing, and she arranged with their landlord to provide them with heat because they could not afford it due to Jesica's medical bills.

In spite of all her suffering, “Jesica had a deep faith and was muy católica , very Catholic,” Sister Bullen said. “She was very close to the Church and would always call up her cousins and say, ‘Let's go to church! Let's go to church!’”

Anonymous Donor

Pretty soon the entire Louisburg community adopted the Santilláns because Jesica's Spanish teacher contacted the Franklin County Times, which published an editorial saying Jesica's family needed $10,000 for a medical procedure to keep her alive a little longer while she waited for organs to become available. A man who read the article anonymously donated the money.

The man turned out to be a devout Baptist, Mark “Mack” Mahoney, a local building contractor in town who had lost his 2-month-old son to a medical error during an operation to correct a kidney defect.

Mahoney then founded Jesica's Hope Chest Foundation. The charity helps provide aid to critically ill children and helps their families cope with the devastation of catastrophic illness by building houses with donated materials and selling them to raise money.

Then Duke University Medical Center doctors called to tell the Santilláns some good news — Jessica's three-year wait was over; they had a new heart for her.

On Feb.7 Jesica had the transplant operation, but something was wrong and Jesica's condition worsened. Surgeons then discovered that they had implanted a heart and lungs from a donor with the wrong blood type. Jesica's body launched a massive immunological assault on the foreign intruders that eventually caused a heart attack and a stroke.

Her family hoped for a miracle.

“We trust that the Virgin [of Guadalupe] will help her to survive and will rescue her,” said Jesica's aunt Isabel Santillán right after the second operation. Her aunt Ramona Santillán even “promised” that if Our Lady of Guadalupe would “help Jessica,” she would “take Jesica to her shrine in Mexico City” to thank her.

With hours to spare, their prayers were answered and a second set of organs was found.

“It's a miracle that she survived after the first operation,” said Jesica's uncle Transito Rojas from Tamazula de Giordiano at the time.

The whole ordeal has left the family emotionally spent.

“The family is very sad,” said Jesica's aunt, Rosario Santillán. “We are very grateful for every-one's prayers and financial assistance. Please keep our family in your prayers.”

Lisa Makson writes from Alexandria, Virginia.