A hospital in Washington state has allegedly taken multiple sick patients off its transplant wait list over their choice not to get a coronavirus vaccine.
Conservative Seattle radio host Jason Rantz reported Tuesday that the University of Washington Medical Center has taken patients off its organ transplant list recently, quoting an unofficial policy requiring transplant recipients to be vaccinated against the pathogen.
One of the patients, Derek Kovick, a 41-year-old man in need of a liver transplant, told Rantz about the controversial hospital policy last week. Soon to follow, another patient, 64-year-old Sam Allen, came out with his own story.
Allen, who suffers from a series of heart-related medical conditions, told the radio host he had been on the hospital’s wait list for a heart transplant for more than a couple years now. But in June, after doctors found out that he was unvaccinated and had no plans to receive the vaccine, he was told that he would no longer be on the transplant list.
He said it all started after a disagreement over mask-wearing at the hospital.
“The cardiologist called me, and we had a discussion, and he informed me that, ‘Well, you’re going to have to get a vaccination to get a transplant.’ And I said, ‘Well that’s news to me and nobody’s ever told me that before.’ And he says, ‘Yeah, that’s our policy,'” Allen recalled.
After he declined, the hospital sent him a letter in June telling him that he had been removed from the United Network for Organ Sharing wait list for a heart.
“Your name has been removed from the waitlist at the University of Washington Medical Center,” the letter read. “This was done in follow-up to your recent conversation with providers regarding the heart transplant selection committee’s concerns about compliance with COVID-19-related policies and recommendations.”
The letter added that Allen’s situation could potentially be reassessed but only if he satisfied their “compliance concerns.”
According to Rantz, when he reached out to the UW Medical Center for clarification, the hospital did not refute the claims. Officials did, however, decline the notion that an official policy is on the books. But Rantz is not buying it.
“After emails from several patients [told] the same story of being denied or threatened with denial of treatment over COVID vaccine refusal, it seemed likely that there was a policy,” Rantz noted.
Hospital spokesperson Susan Gregg loosely alleged that “physicians make a determination regarding vaccine recommendations and requirements, including COVID-19 vaccination, based on the risk factors of the individual patient and degree of immunosuppression they will experience.”
Allen told Rantz that he has so far declined to get a coronavirus vaccine because the possible side effects might be harmful to him, because of his unique heart condition. Allen reportedly suffers from a variety of illnesses, including mitral valve regurgitation, tricuspid valve regurgitation, aortic valve regurgitation, aneurism of thoracic aorta, and dilated cardiomyopathy.
He spoke his concerns that the UW Medical Center’s policy could ultimately keep him from receiving a life-saving transplant.
“It absolutely will lead to my death,” he said.