Colorado women who are not vaccinated have been refused a transplant

Colorado Springs, Colorado-She was forced to make a difficult decision when she learned that the hospital would not approve kidney transplant surgery until she was vaccinated with the COVID-19 vaccine. health Must go against her religious beliefs.

Reborn Christian Leilani Rutari brought her faith.

She has stage 5 kidney disease and is at risk of dying without a new kidney, but Lutali, 56, has stem cells. vaccination..

“As a Christian, I can’t support anything related to baby abortion, and the sanctity of life for me is precious,” she said.

UC Health needs to vaccinate transplant recipients because transplant recipients are at high risk of being infected with COVID-19 and are at risk of being hospitalized and dying from the virus, spokesman Dan Weaver said. He said unvaccinated donors could also pass COVID-19 to their recipients, even if they initially tested negative for the disease.

“Studies show that transplant patients infected with COVID-19 can have a mortality rate of 20% or more,” he said.

It is not clear how common this type of policy is.

The American Hospital Association, which represents nearly 5,000 hospitals Health care US systems and networks said there was no data to share on this issue. However, many porting programs state that patients are required to be vaccinated with COVID-19 due to a weakened immune system.

Although any type of surgery can stress the patient’s immune system and make it more susceptible to COVID-19 infection later, organ transplant recipients are powerful in suppressing the immune system and protecting the body. You are even more at risk because you have to take a lot of medicine. Nancy Foster, vice president of quality and patient safety policy at AHA, said in a statement that she rejected new organs that the body considers foreign bodies.

“Furthermore, if a patient has to wait for vaccination until after surgery, the immune system is unlikely to initiate the desired antibody response, given that they are taking rejection drugs,” she said. Said.

According to news reports, transplant centers in Washington, Vermont, Massachusetts, and Alabama have police that require recipients to be vaccinated.

The Cleveland Clinic recently decided to require both transplant recipients and living donors to be vaccinated with COVID-19, the organization said in a statement.

Some healthcare systems, such as the Mayo Clinic and the two largest in the United States, Sentara Healthcare, recommend or strongly recommend transplant vaccination. The University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine Transplant Program only recommends vaccination of living donors, but the donation process does not require vaccination.

The best time to get the COVID-19 vaccine is before an organ transplant. If time permits, the patient should receive a second dose of the available vaccine at least a few weeks before the transplant. This “makes your body show a good immune response to the vaccine,” said Dr. Deepari Kumar, president of the American Transplant Society. -Elected and infectious disease doctor.

Many major religious denominations have not objected to the COVID-19 vaccine. However, due to the long-standing role that cell lines derived from fetal tissue have played a direct or indirect role in the research and development of various vaccines and medicines, the development has sparked heated debate.

Roman Catholic leaders in New Orleans and St. Louis even called Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 shot “morally jeopardized.” J & J emphasizes that the vaccine does not contain fetal tissue.

In addition, the Vatican’s doctrinal office states that it is “morally acceptable” for Catholics to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, which is based on studies using cells derived from aborted foets. Pope Francis himself says that it is “suicide” that is not shot and is fully vaccinated with Pfizer’s prescription.

Dr. Kumar said ethical considerations should take into account both personal and social perspectives.

“This is really the best for patients at the moment and from a social point of view,” she said. “The more patients we get vaccinated, the better we can get.”

For tech recruiter Rutari, her hospital seems to have been obsessed with saving her from COVID-19, who is willing to kill her by blocking transplant surgery.

Rutari, who does not belong to the sect, said he was not alive for fear of dying because he believed in the afterlife. She is probably looking for another hospital in Texas or Florida. There you can get a transplant without getting vaccinated.

“I hope something comes that I can live with, from the perspective of my choice,” she said.

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Nieberg and Slevin reported from Denver.