Teen suspect who died after police chase was heart recipient

[iammalcolmx]

Do you guys remember this? The hospital didn't want to give him a transplant and everyone got pissed.
When I was that car on the news yesterday I was like


www.ajc.com/news/news/roswell-pd-fleeing-burglar-shoots-at-victim-hits-p/nkjdM/

A troubled teenager who received a controversial heart transplant less than two years ago died Tuesday after he lost control of his car during a high-speed chase with Roswell police.

Anthony Stokes, 17, of Decatur, was also a suspect in a failed burglary and a carjacking, which police believe were linked to the fatal crash of the black Honda Accord on Ga 9, Officer Lisa Holland said.

Stokes made international news in August 2013 after the media reported that Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston had not put him on a transplant list. The hospital ruled he was a bad candidate for the organ because of his background that suggested he would be “uncompliant” in treatment and had brushes with the law.
Teen suspect who died after Roswell police chase was heart recipient photo
Authorities were investigating after a burglary, a pedestrian hit and a car crash in Roswell on Tuesday afternoon. (Channel 2 Action News)

His mother, Melencia Hamilton, then told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that hospital officials stereotyped her son, who wore a court-ordered monitoring device, as a troubled teen.

“It just seemed they decided he’s a troublemaker, and that’s not true,” she said in August 2013.

Attempts to reach Hamilton for comment Tuesday were unsuccessful.

Anthony Stokes, 15, has an enlarged heart and needs a transplant, his family said in 2013.

Stokes suffered from dilated cardiomyopathy, in which the heart’s main pumping chamber, the left ventricle, fails to pump enough blood.

People who receive transplants must adhere to strict medication regimens to keep their bodies from rejecting the organs. A person can be disqualified if hospital officials think the patient won’t stick to that regimen, has no support system or an inability to pay for expensive anti-rejection medicines.

At the time Stokes was diagnosed, doctors said he would die within six to nine months without a transplant, Hamilton said. The hospital reversed course and Stokes received a heart after his mother and critics from civil rights organizations contended he was denied the heart because he was poor, black and had trouble with the law, which his mother said was for fighting.

Channel 2 Action News reported Tuesday night that it had confirmed that Stokes was the same Anthony Stokes who died after fleeing police following a carjacking and a burglary. An elderly Roswell woman told the news station Stokes shot at her — pointing to bullet holes in her walls — after he kicked in her door and found her inside watching television.

His Facebook page had pictures of him showing off a pistol, the news station reported.

The Honda was reported carjacked in Dunwoody, Holland said. Police responding to a burglary call on Alpine Drive spotted it and pursued after noting it matched the description of the car that fled the burglary scene, Holland said. Stokes crashed while approaching Hembree Road.

He clipped a car in the intersection and then jumped the curb and hit a pedestrian before colliding with a SunTrust Bank sign, Holland said.

“He lost control and there was a long set of skid marks,” she said.

The driver of the other car was uninjured, the injured pedestrian was doing well at the scene, Holland said. Stokes died after rescue workers cut him out of Honda, Holland said.

The pedestrian, 33-year-old Clementina Hernandez, is stable and in good condition in North Fulton Hospital, Lindsey Harber, spokeswoman North Fulton Hospital, told Channel 2.

Police are still trying to connect the car to the burglary, which occurred a couple of minutes before the car chase, Holland said.

Police aren’t sure whether a gun was fired, Holland said. The burglar fled in a black car.

“We haven’t really connected that he was the person who did the burglary,” she said. “He may have been running from something else.”

The crash is being investigated by the Georgia State Patrol.

[btdt]

At the risk of looking like an asshole, I guess the people at Egleston were right.

[ttt]

I would be pretty pissed if I were the parents of the kid next on the list who didn't get that heart.

[iammalcolmx]

I sorta remember hearing they were not going to give him the Heart and getting mad. Then I believe there was a MLer who was trying to get her child on the transplant list and seeing how very difficult it was, and WHY they are so picky. That kind of calmed me down regarding this issue.

[sunshine608]

One of the anchors ( Jovita Moore for the locals) that interviewed him posted that this was his last picture on FB.

www.facebook.com/JovitaMoore?fref=photo 

This is a sad story all around. I am glad that no one else was killed during this. That crash looks horrific.


ETA: I hated that the framed it as a race issue b/c I really don't believe that was the cause. He was shown to be non-compliant with his care and that should be reason enough to be denied for something that is a limited resource. 

Attachments:

[ttt]

Apr 1, 2015 7:28:07 GMT -5 sunshine608 said:

One of the anchors ( Jovita Moore for the locals) that interviewed him posted that this was his last picture on FB.

www.facebook.com/JovitaMoore?fref=photo 

This is a sad story all around. I am glad that no one else was killed during this. That crash looks horrific.


ETA: I hated that the framed it as a race issue b/c I really don't believe that was the cause. He was shown to be non-compliant with his care and that should be reason enough to be denied for something that is a limited resource. 

Ummm....

www.facebook.com/anthony.stokes.3382?fref=tl_fr_box 


 

[iammalcolmx]

(1) I am scared to look at his FB page (2) Where was his Momma? I would be losing my shit if we went through all of that and he decided to start showing out like that.

[ttt]

Apr 1, 2015 7:51:43 GMT -5 iammalcolmx said:

(1) I am scared to look at his FB page (2) Where was his Momma? I would be losing my shit if we went through all of that and he decided to start showing out like that.

I just want to know why he has so many different guns!

[dirtyred]

Apr 1, 2015 7:12:15 GMT -5 btdt said:

At the risk of looking like an asshole, I guess the people at Egleston were right.

I used to work in a transplant program, and they really do try to give everyone the opportunity to get a new organ.  We gave new lungs to a kid whose parents were homeless and they lived in their car (kid did great). They don't turn down people without a lengthy evaluation.

And I'm an asshole too, because I thought "There's a wasted heart."

[rugbywife]

OMG, that FB page is…something else.

[sunshine608]

Apr 1, 2015 7:52:39 GMT -5 ttt said:

Apr 1, 2015 7:51:43 GMT -5 iammalcolmx said:

(1) I am scared to look at his FB page (2) Where was his Momma? I would be losing my shit if we went through all of that and he decided to start showing out like that.

I just want to know why he has so many different guns!

It's basically a mix of posting with guns, money and smoking and random bible verses/references to him reading the bible.

[iammalcolmx]

WHERE IS HIS MOMMA???

[jeaniebueller]

That is really sad. All around.

[debatethis]

Apr 1, 2015 7:43:51 GMT -5 ttt said:

Apr 1, 2015 7:28:07 GMT -5 sunshine608 said:

One of the anchors ( Jovita Moore for the locals) that interviewed him posted that this was his last picture on FB.

www.facebook.com/JovitaMoore?fref=photo 

This is a sad story all around. I am glad that no one else was killed during this. That crash looks horrific.


ETA: I hated that the framed it as a race issue b/c I really don't believe that was the cause. He was shown to be non-compliant with his care and that should be reason enough to be denied for something that is a limited resource. 

Ummm....

www.facebook.com/anthony.stokes.3382?fref=tl_fr_box 


 

Let's see. I count three guns, photos of him smoking pot... I feel so badly for the family who could've gotten that heart and the transplant team who was essentially strong-armed into giving it to him when they knew it was a lost cause.

[iammalcolmx]

Apr 1, 2015 8:44:47 GMT -5 debatethis said:

Apr 1, 2015 7:43:51 GMT -5 ttt said:

Ummm....

www.facebook.com/anthony.stokes.3382?fref=tl_fr_box 


 

Let's see. I count three guns, photos of him smoking pot... I feel so badly for the family who could've gotten that heart and the transplant team who was essentially strong-armed into giving it to him when they knew it was a lost cause.

I am not sure I agree they knew he was a lost cause at the time, but yes I could see denying him learning more how the system works.

[debatethis]

Apr 1, 2015 9:06:34 GMT -5 iammalcolmx said:

Apr 1, 2015 8:44:47 GMT -5 debatethis said:

Let's see. I count three guns, photos of him smoking pot... I feel so badly for the family who could've gotten that heart and the transplant team who was essentially strong-armed into giving it to him when they knew it was a lost cause.

I am not sure I agree they knew he was a lost cause at the time, but yes I could see denying him learning more how the system works.

I think I should be more clear - I meant that giving a heart to anon-compliant recipient with a less than stellar legal history would mean the heart itself was a lost cause. I don't think anyone was ready to say that a teenager should be written off, just that he was essentially going to waste the heart.

[osulori]

So sad on so many levels.

[mich1]

Had he turned his life around after the transplant, this could have given the transplant protocol some need to be rather 'loose' with regards to regulations to being put on the list. Now, I suspect that there s going to be a stronger stand taken for future non compliant patients.....so not only was a heart wasted, so are opportunities for any other questionable recipients.

[earlgreyhot]

Apr 1, 2015 7:22:28 GMT -5 ttt said:

I would be pretty pissed if I were the parents of the kid next on the list who didn't get that heart.

As well as the family of the donor heart. 

[aurora]

This is heartbreaking on so many levels.

Tangential to this particular story, I want to rage about this part:

People who receive transplants must adhere to strict medication regimens to keep their bodies from rejecting the organs. A person can be disqualified if hospital officials think the patient won’t stick to that regimen, has no support system or an inability to pay for expensive anti-rejection medicines.

I am so angry to be part of a system where your ability to pay for the necessary follow-up medications impacts your chance to have even an opportunity at life.

[earlgreyhot]

Apr 1, 2015 9:18:40 GMT -5 osulori said:

So sad on so many levels.

Yes. Just sad. 

[penguingrrl]

Apr 1, 2015 9:38:52 GMT -5 aurora said:

This is heartbreaking on so many levels.

Tangential to this particular story, I want to rage about this part:

People who receive transplants must adhere to strict medication regimens to keep their bodies from rejecting the organs. A person can be disqualified if hospital officials think the patient won’t stick to that regimen, has no support system or an inability to pay for expensive anti-rejection medicines.

I am so angry to be part of a system where your ability to pay for the necessary follow-up medications impacts your chance to have even an opportunity at life.

That stuck out to me as well. How fucked up is our society that ability to pay for expensive medication is a concern in saving a life. I feel like every day I see more and more injustice in our healthcare system. When will our leaders wake up and realize that medical care isn't a luxury?

[bugandbibs]

It's too bad he didn't take the gift he was given and use it to spur positive changes in his own life. The whole situation is sad.

[ttt]

Well here's where momma was:

www.wsbtv.com/news/news/local/mentor-suspect-deadly-carjacking-chase-speaks-out/nkkPf/

Major said he wishes he’d had more time with Stokes, but he said Stokes’ mother called him not long after the successful heart transplant and said she didn’t want his help any longer.

“She said ‘I can handle it myself,’” he said. “'I don’t need other people in my family’s life or my family’s business.'”