State : Girl’s Body Rejects Boy’s Heart

PATTERSON, Calif. — The heart of a 15-year-old boy--transplanted into the girl he loved three years ago--is being rejected by the girl’s body, and she will have to undergo another transplant.

Doctors are looking for a suitable heart for Donna Ashlock, 18, who has been living on the heart of Felipe Garza since Jan. 4, 1986. Doctors learned last month that the Garza heart has been permanently damaged by repeated attempts by Donna’s body to reject it. Garza died of a broken blood vessel in his brain only a few days after he told his mother that he had had a premonition of death and that he wanted his heart to go to Donna, who had learned a year earlier that she needed a transplant.