Woman Denied Kidney Transplant As She Was Not Vaccinated

A woman in Colorado was denied kidney transplantation as she was not fully vaccinated, and she justified it due to her religious views.

She was in a tough situation as the hospitals wouldn’t treat her unless she gets vaccinated, and she was reluctant to take the vaccine doses due to her religious beliefs.

Woman Denied Kidney Transplant As She Was Not Vaccinated

This woman, situated in Colorado, was in her 5th stage of kidney disease and that lands up putting her at a higher risk of losing her life, without her new kidney.

Italy, who is 56 mentioned that at that time, she did not agree to get herself vaccinated due to reason that, the role of stem cells plays a large in the development of vaccines.

She states, as a Christian, she will not be supporting anything that is about to do with the abortion of babies. She says the sanctity of life is way too precious for her.

Since recipients are at a higher risk of getting the Coronavirus, UCHealth asks transplant recipients to be fully vaccinated, as stated by a spokesman, Dan Weaver. Unvaccinated donors, even if initially were tested negative for the disease, could and would pass the virus to the recipient. According to studies, transplant patients who have covid-19 may have a mortality rate of 20% and above, he adds. But this type of policy is not meant to be very common.

Representing nearly 5,000 hospitals, health care systems, and networks in the United States of America, The American Hospital Association stated that it did not have any data to share on this particular issue. But many transplant programs request patients to get their two vaccine doses as their immune system is at its lowest during that time.

Several surgeries may tend to leave the patient with a weak immune system and hence making them vulnerable to the Covid-19 Infection later on. Organ transplant recipients are known to be at a higher risk as they have to consume a powerful regime of drugs to reduce their immune system level, which in turn keeps their body from refusing any new organ because it is seen by the body as a whole new object, Nancy Foster says, Nancy Foster is AHA’s vice president.

As per few news reports, transplant centers in Vermont, Massachusetts, Alabama, and Washington have guidelines that require recipients to be fully vaccinated. Recently, Cleveland Clinic discussed and decided to make sure both, the living donors and the recipients need to be fully vaccinated. The organization mentions this in a statement.

Mayo Clinic and Sentara Healthcare, which are known to be the nation’s two largest centers, strongly encourage fully vaccinated transplants. The University of Alabama Birmingham’s School of Medicine’s transplant program purely suggests that living donors must be vaccinated but it shall not be required for the donation process.

It is suggested that the right time to receive a covid-19 vaccine is prior to the organ transplant. Patients are recommended to get their second dose as well, if available, at the least a couple of weeks before the surgery. As per Dr. Deepali Kumar, who is the American Society of Transplantation’s president-elect, our body has a good immune response to the vaccine shots.

Dr. Kumar says it is honestly what is best and right for the patient and is very important to look at it from a societal perspective too. You know we have better outcomes if more patients get vaccinated.

Italy, the woman from Colorado, is not someone who belongs to a denomination and says mentions how she is not living in fear, ever, of death, due to her belief in the afterlife. She is currently looking for health care centers and hospitals in Texas or Florida, where she can get her chance to get her transplant surgery done, without being fully vaccinated, due to her religious beliefs.