THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
From"Boy Predicts His Death - Gives Heart to Dying Friend" - January 7, 1986
A 15-year-old victim of unrequited love finally succeeded in death where he failed in life - he literally gave his heart to the girl he loved. Felipe Garza Jr.
fulfilled his haunting vow of three weeks ago - to die so that he could donate his heart to 14-year-old Donna Ashlock, who had just been diagnosed as having a
fatal heart disease. Until recently, both youths appeared healthy and headed for a normal life. They knew each other as classmates in the small, 160-student
freshman class at the local high school in Patterson, a San Joaquin Valley farming community near Modesto. Felipe was a small, lively teenager with an
uncommon passion for breakdancing, according to those who knew him. And he loved Donna, they said. Donna, however, had chosen another boyfriend.
She dated Felipe once last summer, then began going with another Patterson youth, her friends said. Suddenly three weeks ago, Donna fell ill. Her father,
Raymond Ashlock, told reporters yesterday that she appeared perfectly healthy until then. But one evening she returned from the fast-food restaurant
and began gasping for breath. Her doctors found that she was suffering from cardiomyopathy, a degeneration of the heart muscle, and they gave her
only a few more months to live if she did not have a heart transplant. When Felipe learned of her illness, he told his mother he was going to die and asked
that she make sure his heart went to the young girl. "I'm going to die so I can give my heart to Donna," his family quoted him saying repeatedly. Felipe's
half-brother, John Sanchez, said the request was unusual because Felipe appeared to be in perfect health. Then early Sunday morning, Felipe complained of
pain on the left side of his head, Sanchez said. His breath became short and he was unable to walk. He was rushed to the hospital. A blood vessel in his
brain had burst. He was placed on a respirator, which kept his heart functioning even though he was medically brain-dead. The Garza family immediately
decided to donate his heart to Donna.
From"Teenager With Admirer's Heart Dies" - March 8, 1989
Donna Ashlock, the freckle-faced teenager who received a donated heart from a love-struck boy three years ago, died in her sleep at home yesterday in
Patterson, Stanislaus County. Although Donna and the boy who willed her his heart, Felipe Garza Jr., were never sweethearts, the tragic nature of the story
made her an instant, international celebrity. During the past year, the 17-year-old high school senior suffered several bouts of transplant rejection, and she
was awaiting her second heart transplant at the time of her death. She would have been 18 on April 1.