A Boston hospital refuses a heart transplant to a patient not vaccinated against covid-19

First modification: 27/01/2022 – 04:34

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Boston (United States) (AFP) – A Boston hospital refused a heart transplant to one of its patients for not being vaccinated against covid-19, arguing that the procedure would be a failure, US television media reported.

Questioned by AFP, a spokesman for Brigham and Women’s Hospital confirmed in a statement that the coronavirus vaccine was “required” for all organ transplant candidates.

David Ferguson, the patient’s father, spoke to CNN and ABC about his 31-year-old son’s fight against “death” and said he was “at the limit of his strength.”

The patient, who needs a heart transplant at this Boston hospital, refuses to be vaccinated against the coronavirus. “This fundamentally goes against his principles, he doesn’t believe in it,” Ferguson justified.

And since Brigham and Women’s Hospital “applies this policy (…), they crossed him off the heart transplant list,” the father complained.

In a statement transmitted to AFP, the Boston hospital explains that its “care system requires several vaccines recommended by health authorities, including the covid-19 vaccine.”

Vaccination, together with “life discipline, creates the best conditions for the success of the operation (…) and optimizes the survival of the patient after the transplant, especially since the immune system is drastically weakened.”

In fact, “during any transplant, the immune system stops. Covid can be fatal,” said Dr. Arthur Caplan, from New York University, on the CBS channel.

And therefore, in the absence of vaccination “patients leave the waiting list” for transplants, justified the Boston hospital, where David Ferguson’s son is still being treated.

Mr. Ferguson says he respects his son’s “decision” and is considering transferring him to another facility, but “time is running out” for this already weak patient.

In the United States, where only 62% of the population is fully vaccinated against covid-19 due to marked political divisions on the subject, nearly 60 million infections and some 872,000 deaths have been registered so far.

© 2022 AFP

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