A teenager who received a life-saving heart transplant two years ago after initially being denied because of his bad behavior has died following a high-speed car chase with police.
Anthony Stokes, 17, died on Tuesday afternoon after he crashed a stolen Honda into a pole as he fled the scene of an attempted burglary at an elderly woman's home in Roswell, Georgia.
His death comes less than two years after he was given a second chance at life following a heart transplant at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, the
Atlanta Journal Constitution reported.
The boy, from Decatur, suffered from a dilated cardiomyopathy so his heart was unable to pump enough blood. The condition can lead to irregular heartbeats, blood clots or heart failure.
He had been given just six to nine months to live but the hospital initially refused to put him on the waiting list for a new organ because they thought he would be 'non-compliant' with the treatment.
Patients can be disqualified from getting a transplant if a hospital doubts they'll stick to the medication regimen after the operation.
At the time, the hospital said that Stokes had failed to take his medication in the past, so his history of non-compliance meant he was not put on the waiting list.
But family and friends alleged that his low school grades and brushes with the law were the real reason he had been ruled out.
Stokes' mother, Melencia Hamilton, told reporters that her son, who wore a court-ordered monitoring device, had been stereotyped as a troubled teen.
Following pressure from national media coverage, the boy's family and civil rights groups, the hospital backpedaled in August 2013, and the teenager received a new heart.
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