Florida: Police vehicle on beach kills one, injures one

A French tourist was upgraded to serious condition Sunday, a day after she was critically hurt, and her sister killed, when a police vehicle ran them over as they sunbathed in Miami Beach.

Sandrine Tunc, 26, was being treated at Jackson Memorial Hospital, spokeswoman Conchita Ruiz-Topinka said. The Miami Beach police department and mayor have set up a blood drive today to help her, said police spokesman Bobby Hernandez.

Tunc and her sister, Stephanie, 27, were struck by the sport utility vehicle as they lay on a crowded beach Saturday, authorities said. Officer George Varon apparently didn’t see the two as he searched for robbery suspects who had been reported nearby.

Varon, a seven-year veteran, was placed on administrative leave while the accident was under investigation. He wasn’t using a siren and witnesses said the women didn’t see his vehicle coming.

North Carolina: Autopsy ordered in transplant death

Medical examiners will determine what ultimately killed a teenager who survived a botched heart-lung transplant but died two days after receiving a second set of organs.

An autopsy was planned today on the body of Jesica Santillan, the state medical examiner’s office said. Jesica died Saturday at Duke University Medical Center in Raleigh.

Memorial services for the teenager are planned for Tuesday, said Mack Mahoney, a family friend and Jesica’s chief benefactor. He said he believed the family would return her body to their home country of Mexico for burial.

Washington, D.C.: Health care workers decline vaccinations

Despite President Bush’s recommendation, hospitals and health care workers are turning down the smallpox vaccine, worried about the inoculation’s side effects and unconvinced that the threat of a bioterror attack justifies the risk.

Federal officials had hoped to inoculate almost 450,000 health care workers in the program’s first month. With the month ending today, the figure is coming in at about 1 percent of that goal.

States are not close to beginning a second stage of vaccinations for as many as 10 million emergency responders and other health care workers.