Teen Added to Heart Transplant List After Hospital's Change of Heart, Family Says
Hospital reversed decision to keep teen off transplant list over bad behavior.
Aug. 13, 2013— -- The family of Anthony Stokes, the 15-year-old boy who was denied a place on the heart transplant waiting list because of "non-compliance," now say doctors at a George hospital have changed their minds.
Anthony has an enlarged heart and has been given six months to live, but Anthony's family said doctors told them that they wouldn't put him on the transplant list because of his history of "non-compliance." This typically means a patient hasn't shown that he can follow medical directions, such as taking his medicine or showing up to follow-up appointments.
"I know he will comply with all the rules," a crying Melencia Hamilton, Anthony's mother, told ABC News earlier today, before she said she learned that doctors had reversed their decision would put Anthony on the transplant list. "He will take his medicine because he knows that is how he has to live."
Hamilton said she thought doctors made their decision to deny Anthony because he had low grade and trouble with the law.
"He was just fighting," Hamilton said. "Trying to take up, just trying to take up for his brother because somebody was bullying his brother."
She said she wishes everyone could get to know her son.
A spokeswoman at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston, where Stokes is receiving treatment, would not comment today on the specifics of his case, citing patient privacy rules, but said there was some "misinformation" circulating.
The hospital released a statement Monday saying that it was continuing to work with the family to explore its options.
"We follow very specific criteria in determining eligibility for a transplant of any kind," hospital spokeswoman Patty Gregory said in the statement to ABCNews.com.