Hospital system says it will deny transplants to the unvaccinated in 'almost all situations'
Source: Washington Post
A Colorado-based health system says it is denying organ transplants to patients not vaccinated against the coronavirus in almost all situations, citing studies that show these patients are much more likely to die if they get covid-19.
The policy illustrates the growing costs of being unvaccinated and wades into deeply controversial territory the use of immunization status to decide who gets limited medical care. The mere idea of prioritizing the vaccinated for rationed health resources has drawn intense backlash, as overwhelmingly unvaccinated covid-19 patients push some hospitals to adopt crisis standards of care, in which health systems can prioritize patients for scarce resources based largely on their likelihood of survival.
UCHealths rules for transplants entered the spotlight Tuesday when Colorado state Rep. Tim Geitner (R) said it denied a kidney transplant to a Colorado Springs woman because she was not vaccinated against the coronavirus. Calling the decision disgusting and discriminatory, Geitner shared a letter that he said the patient received last week from UCHealths transplant center at the University of Colorados Anschutz Medical Campus in the city of Aurora.
The letter said the woman would be inactivated on a kidney transplant waiting list and had 30 days to start coronavirus vaccination. If she refused to be vaccinated, it said, she would be removed.
Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/hospital-system-says-it-will-deny-transplants-to-the-unvaccinated-in-almost-all-situations/ar-AAPb9RA
bucolic_frolic
(43,129 posts)This should really juice the anti-vaxx, school board crowd
irisblue
(32,968 posts)Livers. do not get transplanted into active alcoholics.
The patient has a choice, as is her right. Her choice is to FAFO, and she did.
my late husband had to quit smoking before going on the kidney transplant list
(so we both did)
Eligibility for a transplant was already conditional and this is just one more very reasonable requirement.
FarPoint
(12,340 posts)The Transplant rules are strict for a reason ..Did you know...must be non smoker ..they do drug screening for nicotine...6 months absence of nicotine is a rule, no cheating...if detected ..one gets bumped off list for another 6 months ... people die on a waiting list...
lambchopp59
(2,809 posts)Wrapping up some downtime, relatively effective at healing up from long-haul COVID symptoms before re-joining the hospital front lines, I've had some bent fun "debating" some of the anti-vaxx, anti-mask nutjobs. Just search for any YouTube video with term "Fauci" and the comments section will be loaded with poorly spelled, often unintelligible responses.
I'd placed the following comment into one of those reply threads about wearing masks in surgery:
I spend 12 hours a day 3 or 4 days a week, exception 1/2 hr lunch break, often overtime in surgery masked. Some may get a tiny clue to how pathetically whiney it sounds to our team how inconvenienced, how offended anti-maskers get being asked to wear a mask in the store.
The stupidity flood of replies was astonishing. I didn't respond to any of it, but it became hot debate thread, pages long.
One particular reply was mildly amusing, took considerable deciphering because the person commenting obviously was attempting to spell out his craziness phonetically. What little I could decipher of that person's veritable hieroglyphics truly stunned: roughly this person appeared to be asking an undecipherable question of me:
(paraphrased in correct spelling): "When you hospital workers call the government to fill all your empty beds..." (remainder completely unintelligible)
Wow. Just simply wow.
IronLionZion
(45,428 posts)so if they are also unvaccinated, it's inevitable that they will get this virus that attacks vital organs like heart and lungs
geardaddy
(24,926 posts)after 27 years. I got my third (booster) dose in August. Covid is no joke for people like me.
Fritz Walter
(4,291 posts)...I'd tell Geitner to STFU, until and unless he gives one of his kidneys first.
And even then I'd tell him to "Go piss up a rope!"
calimary
(81,220 posts)Because your life WILL depend on it.
Bayard
(22,061 posts)It makes me sick to read news of a heart attack or accident victim dying because the ICU's are all taken up by the stubbornly unvaccinated.
geardaddy
(24,926 posts)As a renal transplant recipient, I'm glad they're denying transplants to unvaccinated idiots.
halfulglas
(1,654 posts)Although they should certainly deny transplants. What a waste of this wonderful gift from another person and their family to die from something like COVID. It should be NO flying on airlines, NO concerts, etc. Even if it is just hesitancy and not evil obstinance, if they want to keep their bodies "pure" don't contaminate our public spaces either. Returning to ordinary life should be a privilege which those of us who are vaccinated have earned, while they have not while keeping the pandemic going.
wryter2000
(46,037 posts)All kinds of factors go into deciding who gets organs. One is how likely they are to go on with a reasonable life afterwards. The unvaccinated have a higher likelihood of dying. That puts a similar patient who is vaccinated ahead of them. There is no good medical reason for people not to be vaccinated.
Alexander Of Assyria
(7,839 posts)in any restaurant, no shoes no service, applies in a private medical care system.
No vaccination, no service.
No soup for you, GOP!
HuskyOffset
(888 posts)from a donor who had been vaccinated against covid-19?
Hugh_Lebowski
(33,643 posts)Wonder how fast they'd change their tune if they were bleeding out?
Scalded Nun
(1,236 posts)Only science (and not nut-job idiots) states that the procedure would help.
Does anyone have a clue as to just how many tracking devices can be concealed in an organ? I had GOT to be a shitload.
dchill
(38,472 posts)Jilly_in_VA
(9,965 posts)This is a wise decision. IMNSHO, they should also deny the unvaccinated ICU care, but that's just me being ugly.
durablend
(7,460 posts)Mhmm, guess what "god" obviously wanted your kidney to fail. Pretty sure a transplant is a nono as well.
ToxMarz
(2,166 posts)is thorough a vaccine shot. Couldn't possibly do anything like that to someone under anesthesia having an foreign organ transplanted in their body.
Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(107,922 posts)A Colorado health system told a prospective kidney transplant recipient that she would not receive an organ donation if she remained unvaccinated against the coronavirus, a state lawmaker said this week.
Representative Tim Geitner, a Republican, said in a Facebook Live post on Tuesday that a local resident had received a letter from the service, UCHealth, stating that her status on the transplant waiting list had been changed to inactive.
Unfortunately and sadly, UCHealth has said that unless and until this individual is willing to take a Covid vaccine, that they will not be able to perform this lifesaving surgery, Mr. Geitner said.
Posting on Twitter, Mr. Geitner shared a letter from UCHealth to the patient that cited noncompliance. The letter, dated Sept. 28, advised the patient that she had 30 days to begin the vaccination series and that she would be removed from the list if she did not.
Link to tweet
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/06/us/covid-vaccine-kidney-transplant.html
Response to TheProle (Original post)
ExTex This message was self-deleted by its author.
RobinA
(9,888 posts)to be vaccinated to get a colonoscopy. I've had two recently and they never even asked me about vaccination. Which I am, not they didn't know that.
Does pervious immunity survive suppressive drugs? If not, what is the purpose of this rule?