Teen denied, then given transplant dies in police chase
ROSWELL, Ga. — An Atlanta-area teenager who was first denied a heart transplant then given one two years ago, died this week when he lost control of the car he was driving while fleeing police, according to police records.
Anthony Stokes made national headlines when Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston originally refused to put him on the transplant list "due to having a history of non-compliance." After a public push from his family, Stokes was added to the list and went through a successful operation in August 2013.
Police said Stokes, 17, of Decatur died after crashing a vehicle while fleeing from police in Roswell on Tuesday.
According to Lisa Holland of the Roswell Police Department, police began the chase after a home break-in on Alpine Drive. An elderly woman said someone kicked in her door. She ran into her bedroom to call 911.
A responding officer noticed a black Honda Accord that fit the description of a vehicle involved in the home invasion, Holland said. When the officer tried to pull over the car, the driver refused to stop and a chase ensued.
The suspect lost control of the car, hit a curb and a pedestrian, according to police. Then the suspect struck a pole at the intersection of Hembree Road and Highway 9. Authorities extracted him from the car and he was taken to North Fulton Medical Center, where he was later pronounced dead.
The car had been reported stolen in a carjacking in nearby Dunwoody earlier Tuesday, the report said.
The pedestrian, Clementina Hernandez, 33, is in stable condition.
Jail records show Stokes was arrested in January for allegedly stealing a car in a Walmart parking lot. He was also arrested twice in Newton County.
Stokes' death saddened Mack Major, who tried for several years to mentor him. The last time he saw Stokes, Major said, he was talking about college.
"I was sure that he would be one of my poster kids, I really did, because he was on the right track, he was talking right. He was doing everything he was supposed to do," Major said.
Stokes wrote on his Facebook page that he was attending Georgia Perimeter College, but school officials said they have no record of him.
Major says the pictures on Stokes' Facebook page made his heart skip a beat. "Every shot he had with the gun in his hand … with his pants hanging way down. Bothered me so much that it's absolutely sickening," Major said.
Doctors never explained why they felt Stokes would be "non-compliant" when they denied his initial request for a transplant. Stokes, who was 15 at the time, was wearing a court-ordered ankle monitor. His mother said it was for fighting. A close family friend said it was for drugs.
Stokes' mother, Melencia Hamilton, told a reporter, "He's a young boy. He's going to make mistakes."
News media reports at the time quoted Hamilton as saying that her son, who had dilated cardiomyopathy, would likely die within six to nine months without a new heart.
The hospital said in statements at the time that transplant evaluations are an ongoing process and that doctors were working with the family on a care plan. But it quickly reversed course and agreed to put Stokes on the list. He received a heart transplant on Aug. 21, 2013.
Major says he's saddened at the way Stokes's life ended, but he believes the donor's heart was not wasted.
"I would tell them (donor's family) still, 'You did a good thing. You did a God-pleasing thing,'" said Major. "I don't know what he said to God in that last moment before life departed. I taught him about God ... perhaps he applied some of that in his last moments. I don't know."
Contributing: The Associated Press