KOMO News: Ohio veteran calls for change after being denied heart transplant over vaccine refusal

I’ve also been hearing about how a relative of JD Vance is being denied a heart transplant over the same issue. Thee comment section for the KOMO News piece on Facebook is full of people who are completely clueless about why the hospital can (and should) do this, so I thought I’d explain this on here in case anyone is completely ignorant about why this is is absolutely fair and has nothing to do with politics.

When you receive a transplanted organ, you are on immunosuppression medication for the rest of your life to keep your body from rejecting the organ. This means that you are at an increased risk of dying from what might seem like a minor infection. As a result, transplant centers want to make sure that those receiving the organs are aware of the need to do some basic things like VACCINATE THEMSELVES to protect themselves and the organ that, in most cases, required someone’s death in order for it to be available for transplantation. This means that you must agree to be fully vaccinated to be put on the transplant registry at your transplant center, and for pretty much every transplant center, that means receiving the COVID vaccine. (I thought it was specifically a UNOS policy, but apparently, it’s up to every transplant center.) The COVID vaccine isn’t experimental, and the only excuse for not receiving it is if it’s going to put you into anaphylaxis. (I know of exactly one case where that has happened, and it was my former work wife Kim.)

This is likened to someone having to promise to avoid alcohol to receive a liver transplant. COVID is going to kill you if you’re immunosuppressed in order to receive your donated organ, so why wouldn’t you do your due diligence and be vaccinated? This isn’t complicated. The gentleman in Ohio isn’t willing to do what is required to receive a heart transplant, so his transplant center is refusing to put him on the list.

I had someone reply to me on Facebook and ask if I would take such a hard line if it was my loved one who was involved. My answer: “100% YES.” I would absolutely call out a family member in this case because their ignorance would be preventing them from receiving life-saving surgery. Granted, I only have one family member who refuses to be vaccinated (and I haven’t seen them since before pandemic started because of this), so this is unlikely, but I would absolutely remain in the stance that it’s the hospital’s decision and they should vaccinate themselves.