The US has counted nearly 60 million Covid infections and 872,000 deaths. (representative)
Boston:
A Boston hospital refused to perform a heart transplant on a patient who had not been vaccinated against Covid-19, US television media reported Wednesday.
A Brigham and Women’s Hospital spokeswoman confirmed in a statement to AFP that vaccination against the coronavirus is “mandatory” for organ transplant recipients there.
The patient’s father, David Ferguson, appeared on DailyExpertNews and ABC news channels to share the family’s story and said his 31-year-old son has been on the brink of death and has gone to extremes while awaiting a recovery. heart transplant.
The patient, who had queued at the hospital in Boston for the transplant, has refused to receive a Covid vaccine.
“It’s a bit against his basic principles, he doesn’t believe in it,” Ferguson told ABC.
“It’s a policy they enforce and because he’s not getting the shot, they’ve taken him off the list for heart transplants,” his father said.
The hospital “requires several CDC-recommended vaccines, including the COVID-19 vaccine,” Brigham and Women’s said in the statement.
The hospital also requires “lifestyle behaviors for transplant candidates to both create the best chance of successful surgery and to optimize patient survival after transplantation, as their immune systems are drastically suppressed,” the statement said.
Arthur Caplan, a medical ethicist at New York University, told CBS, “After every transplant, your immune system is cut off. Covid can kill you.”
“The organs are scarce and they won’t distribute them to someone who has a poor chance of living, while others who are vaccinated have a better chance of surviving after surgery,” Caplan said.
That’s why “patients are not actively on the waiting list without” the vaccine, the hospital said, where Ferguson’s son is still being treated.
The father said he respected his son’s choice and planned to transfer him to another hospital.
“But we’re running out of time,” Ferguson said of his son’s condition.
The United States, where only 62 percent of the total population has been fully vaccinated — in part due to deep political divisions over the shots — has counted nearly 60 million Covid infections and 872,000 deaths.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.)
