A Colorado hospital system will not conduct transplant surgery on patients who refuse to get vaccinated against COVID-19, citing the increased risk of death.
“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.”
At least one woman, Colorado Springs’ Leilani Lutali, has been impacted by the policy. Lutali has stage five renal failure and was months away from receiving a new kidney. But in late September, UCHealth sent her a letter saying she had 30 days to receive her first shot or she would be taken off the transfer list.
KDVR, a local ABC affiliate, explains:
Lutali, who said her life is “in jeopardy” if she’s not allowed to get the transplant, said she has religious concerns as well as concerns that the vaccine would not be effective after receiving immunosuppressant drugs post-surgery.
“Both from a religious standpoint and from doing some reading, I’m not certain that this is the right way to go,” she said. “The shot’s relatively new, and as a consumer, I’m not an early adopter. I wait and see what’s going on. I feel like I’m being coerced into not being able to wait and see and that I have to take the shot if I want this life-saving transplant.”
Dan Weaver, a spokesman for the hospital system that refuses to perform surgery on Lutali, explained that requiring a COVID-19 vaccine is consistent with other safety measures imposed upon patients, including mandating inoculation against hepatitis B. From The Washington Post:
Conditions on organ transplants are not new. Weaver noted that transplant centers around the country may require patients to get other vaccinations, stop smoking, avoid alcohol or demonstrate that they will take crucial medications in an effort to ensure that people do well post-surgery and do not “reject” organs for which there is fierce competition.
“An organ transplant is a unique surgery that leads to a lifetime of specialized management to ensure an organ is not rejected, which can lead to serious complications, the need for a subsequent transplant surgery, or even death,” Weaver wrote in an email to The Post. “Physicians must consider the short- and long-term health risks for patients as they consider whether to recommend an organ transplant.”
Lutali’s donor, Jaimee Fougner, is also unvaccinated. She too would need to be jabbed before she can donate a kidney. The two met in Bible study last year. KDVR reports:
“When I explained that no, I wouldn’t be able to take the COVID shot, then the comment was, well your journey ends here, because we require all of our donors and recipients to have the COVID-19 vaccine,” Fougner said.
“I’m a strong no on the vaccine, for sure,” she said. “We’re talking about compromising my morals for her right to have a surgery,” Fougner said, claiming religious concerns for not being vaccinated.
The two women are currently searching for a hospital that will perform the surgeries.
