Duke Hospital establishes Jésica Santillán Fund

Duke Hospital announced May 8 that it will establish a $4 million perpetual fund honoring the memory of Jésica Santillán. The fund, endorsed by Santillán's mother, will provide additional support services for Latino pediatric patients at the Hospital. 

  Santillán died in February after undergoing two heart-lung transplantations at the Hospital. The 17-year-old native of Mexico was the center of a national media frenzy after doctors discovered she had received incompatible organs in her first transplantation due to procedural errors. 

  Despite criticism from Mack Mahoney-who served as a spokesperson for the Santillán family during and after the ordeal-that the Hospital was using the fund to justify Santillán's death, Hospital CEO Dr. William Fulkerson said the establishment of the fund stemmed from a desire to create a positive legacy for Santillán. 

  "This wasn't done for reputational damage issues," Fulkerson said. "It was done because of everyone's desire here to have a legacy for this. In this particular instance, the legacy will be to have a fund that can meet the needs of families of children here that often have special needs, and which we try to support." Dr. Ralph Snyderman, president and CEO of Duke University Health System, agreed that the fund was not created to address reputational or even legal damages that may have been caused by Santillán's death. 

  Katie Pomerans-a senior fellow and former president of El Pueblo, a North Carolina non-profit organization dedicated to strengthening the Latino community-said she does not believe that local Latinos have placed blame on the Hospital for Santillán's death. 

  "Most people understand that it was a tragic accident, a human mistake," Pomerans said. "However, it is still good for Duke to look for a way of giving back to the community. This was really an outstanding idea because it will be helpful to so many families in the future." 

  An advisory committee, comprised of representatives from the clergy, Latino community and Duke Children's Hospital, will be established to help direct how the Hospital spends the fund money. Fulkerson said the committee members, by virtue of being part of the local Latino community, will be able to provide good insights into how the money can be used effectively. 

  Snyderman said he expects the fund will help support the social needs of indigent Latino patients in services such as temporary housing, food and social and pastoral services. 

  "We have had social support services at Duke for as long as anybody can remember," Snyderman said. "What Jésica and her family had were social workers and translators. Our feeling was a social worker who was really tied in and closely related to the Latino community and the Durham area would be extremely useful to someone like Jésica." 

  Andrea Bazan-Manson, executive director of El Pueblo, confirmed that the Latino community has been very supportive of the Hospital's creation of the fund. "It was the spirit in which this was presented to us that really impressed me," Bazan-Manson said. "As a group we've never really demanded anything special or different. The fact that this came from Duke, and not anything we requested, makes it that much more meaningful." 

  Although Susan Gilbertson, executive director of Catholic Social Ministries, also applauded the Hospital for the "wonderfully generous fund," she added that she hopes there will someday be a similar fund for all low-income families, instead of one exclusively for Latino families. 

  The Hospital considered more general-as well as more specific-options when trying to decide how to honor Santillán's memory, Snyderman said. Other possibilities included funds to improve patient safety or to benefit her hometown near Guadalajara, Mexico. 

  "Patient safety is something we're going to be working on anyway," Snyderman said. "We thought we should do something that would be closer to Jésica and something more like she would have liked. [President] Nan Keohane felt Mrs. Santillán resonated particularly strongly with this particular option." 

  The Hospital will launch the fund by committing to donate $1 million over the next five years, making $50,000 per year immediately available to needy Latino patients and their families. The hospital will also start a five-year fund-raising effort. When fully realized, the fund is expected to generate $200,000 per year.