A hospital system in Colorado says it will not perform transplant surgery for unvaccinated patients in most cases. UCHealth said it implemented the policy to protect its patients, CBS Denver reports.
"For transplant patients who contract COVID-19, the mortality rate ranges from about 20% to more than 30%," UCHealth said in a statement to CBS Denver. "This shows the extreme risk that COVID-19 poses to transplant recipients after their surgeries."
Studies show the COVID-19 vaccines available in the U.S. are highly effective at preventing illness. In the U.S., 186 million people have been fully vaccinated – 56.68% of the population – according to Johns Hopkins University.
Still, some unvaccinated transplant patients in Colorado – a state with 62.05% of its population vaccinated – are feeling the effects of UCHealth's new policy.
One woman with stage 5 renal failure was months away from getting a new kidney, but is now looking for a new hospital since she and her donor are not vaccinated, CBS Denver reports.
Jaimee Fougner, who is donating a kidney to Leilani Lutali, said she hasn't received the vaccine for religious reasons. Lutali said she hasn't gotten the vaccine because there are too many unknowns. The women, who met in Bible study, didn't know about the need for vaccines before surgery until last week.
"At the end of August, they confirmed that there was no COVID shot needed at that time," Lutali told CBS Denver. "Fast forward to September 28. That's when I found out. Jamie learned they have this policy around the COVID shot for both for the donor and the recipient."
UCHealth, which sent the women a letter informing them about the vaccine policy, said they have been given 30 days to get the first shot. If they refuse, they will be removed from the transplant list.
"I said I'll sign a medical waiver. I have to sign a waiver anyway for the transplant itself, releasing them from anything that could possibly go wrong," Lutali said. "It's surgery, it's invasive. I sign a waiver for my life. I'm not sure why I can't sign a waiver for the COVID shot."
UCHealth said the purpose of the vaccine policy is protect the health of its patients and that transplant centers across the U.S. have such requirements in place.
Patients are often required to receive other vaccinations, such hepatitis B and MMR, before surgery, UCHealth says. The hospital says such requirements increase the likelihood of a successful transplant.
The women have not been able to find another Colorado hospital willing to perform the transplant if they are unvaccinated, so they are looking at options in other states, CBS Denver reports.
CBS News has reached out to UCHealth for comment and is awaiting response.
ErinG2021 on October 6th, 2021 at 19:17 UTC »
Somewhat related. Have neighbor, whom I really like. We disagree on importance of Covid vaccines. My neighbor and her family did not get vaccinated. Unfortunately, my neighbor was recently diagnosed with lymphoma. My neighbors’ oncologists insisted that she and all household members get the Covid vaccine before starting chemotherapy because she is going to become severely immunocompromised. They all got vaccinated so she could start chemotherapy more safely and to try to help protect her going through chemo with Covid cases still so high in our area. Not all that different than post transplant patients being severely immunocompromised and their increased risks with Covid.
cruisin5268d on October 6th, 2021 at 18:23 UTC »
I had a friend in my early 20s that needed a heart transplant. I don’t remember specifics but she had to prove she had quit all tobacco, alcohol, and drug usage (she had only tried marijuana once) for something like 6 months before she could get on the list.
For most transplant organs there is an extremely short supply because it’s extremely difficult to harvest viable organs in time before they spoil so it’s crucial to make sure only the most deserving patients receive them.
A heart transplant is an obvious life saving measure. Should the vaccinated and otherwise healthy 35 year old get it or the 65 year old person with a shorter life span that is refusing a vaccine during a pandemic? To me it’s a no brainer. Transplant agencies HAVE to triage to manage limited resources.
After almost two decades as a medic very few of my deceased patients had organs harvested other than skin and eye tissues. It doesn’t help that so, so, so many people aren’t registered organ donors and their families refuse to allow organ harvesting. CPR is physically and mentally exhausting but I would GLADLY do it to maintain perfusion on an organ donor until we can get them to the hospital but, again, this is pretty rare when there’s an out of hospital death since law enforcement have to come process the scene and so on.
TLDR; viable transplantable organs are our most precious resource and their usage must be aggressively managed.
Hobbit_Feet45 on October 6th, 2021 at 15:03 UTC »
As a transplant recipient I’m going to tell it like it is. If she can’t hack it getting a vaccine shes not going to be able to take all the anti rejection meds that go with organ transplants. They have serious long term side effects THAT WE KNOW ABOUT. They are literally poison that suppress your immune system and are nephrotoxic. Transplant centers just won’t work with patients that they know aren’t going to be compliant with taking their meds. If this person can’t take a simple vaccine, how the hell can they trust that person to take their meds? Those transplant centers care a lot about the percentage of long term survival of their patients. I knew someone else that desperately needed a kidney transplant but she couldn’t give up smoking and no transplant center would make an exception for her and she ended up dying. The point is, fucking follow the rules and trust in the medical science, or else transplant centers aren’t going to work with you.