Patient removed from heart transplant list for refusing Covid-19 vaccine (USA)

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Northerner

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A Boston-area hospital said it will not perform a heart transplant on a patient who refuses to get a Covid-19 vaccination.

DJ Ferguson, 31, was previously prioritized for a heart transplant at Brigham and Women’s hospital, but is no longer eligible as he refuses to get vaccinated, said Ferguson’s family, according to a report by CBS Boston.

“It’s kind of against his basic principles – he doesn’t believe in it,” said David Ferguson, his father. “It’s a policy they are enforcing and so, because he won’t get the shot, they took him off the list [for] a heart transplant.”

Covid-19 vaccine is one of several vaccines and lifestyle behaviors required for transplant candidates in the Mass General Brigham system in order to create both the best chance for a successful operation and also the patient’s survival after transplantation.”

Other medical experts have declared their support of the hospital’s policy, noting that the immune system is extremely weak after a transplant, making vaccinations all the more important.

www.theguardian.com

Patient removed from heart transplant list for refusing Covid-19 vaccine

DJ Ferguson, 31, had previously been prioritized for a transplant by Brigham and Women’s hospital in Boston
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
 
I saw this been discussed on CNN,from a medical ethics point.
 
It's a bit like the vascular consultant telling Pete that frankly right now he wouldn't really want to operate on him unless it was actually an emergency because of both his COPD and his excess weight. It's a complete waste of someone else's heart if the person that's getting it simply refuses point blank to give their body the best chance of surviving. Darwin Award.
 
I think it's click bait. From what I understand, with a shortage or organs, the hospital was basically saying, they look at the success factors and then re-prioritise the list based on outcomes, and if you are unvaccinated the risk of recovery from a serious operation like this is higher and if you catch covid and are unvaccinated your chances of survival lower. Also, I believe the patient in question had other underlying factors that when risk scored on the whole, made another case for transplant a higher priority.
 
Yes, any major life changing operations like this come with gains or risks applied. If the risks outweigh the gains by as significant margin as this is, then you don't do the operation. It's unfair on others waiting for a transplant.

And if they are worried about donors, just get folk out of their cars onto motorbikes. An ambulance paramedic I knew in Maidstone referred to bike riders as donors.
 
True, agreed the pillion passenger. There is quite a lot more they don't tell you to begin with when you decide to learn to ride a motorbike, eg the fact that every other road user is potentially out to kill you and to try and prevent this you have to hone the things like the eyes in the back of your helmet you need to grow and your ESP, with a good slug of superhuman strength for the random times you're forced to drive up a bank at the side of the road when someone stops dead in your path and there's a lorry on the other carriageway or when a car decides to pull out in your path on a dual carriageway or open their door without checking a wing/door mirror.
 
trophywench said:
True, agreed the pillion passenger. There is quite a lot more they don't tell you to begin with when you decide to learn to ride a motorbike, eg the fact that every other road user is potentially out to kill you and to try and prevent this you have to hone the things like the eyes in the back of your helmet you need to grow and your ESP, with a good slug of superhuman strength for the random times you're forced to drive up a bank at the side of the road when someone stops dead in your path and there's a lorry on the other carriageway or when a car decides to pull out in your path on a dual carriageway or open their door without checking a wing/door mirror.
Click to expand...
When I was a teenager everyone I knew who had a bike had an accident, usually quite a bad one :( One friend was killed at only 16, my (then future) BIL was put in traction for a year with shattered legs and a friend who was with him at the time (on his own bike) lost both his legs - both were 18, and it was said at the time that if my BIL had got the surgeon who operated on his friend, he would have been the one who lost his legs :( Another friend was riding home from work, on his way to collect a bigger, more powerful bike, and hit a car turning out into the main road in front of him 😱 His bike was concertinaed and he went flying over the top. Remarkably, he was able to walk away, his full-face helmet probably saved his life, but he didn't collect the new bike, he bought a car instead. None of these accidents were caused by the bike rider :(
 
I used to ride a 750cc Kawasaki. It had a full faring on the front, white pariers on the back, and I wore a bright green jacket and had a white helmet with my name in black on the front. I looked like a policeman on a police motorcycle.

The number of cars that suddenly pulled up or stopped short of cutting me up was unnerving. Aways people cleared the way for me on motorways. My guess is that looking like a police bike saved my life.

There was one smashed up couple of cars where they tried to wave me down, but I was on another road close to them.

I gave up biking in the end as I knew it was just a matter of time before the dice rolled for me...

But it was really great riding out there free as a bird, except when it rained, was too cold or too hot. Sigh those were the days. Hmmm

Oh and a knew several people who had nasty accidents too.
 
We all had our time on bikes, before common sense and a sense we actually aren't immortal kicks in.
My daughter's boyfriend has a bike, I bought her a full set of leathers, (well, armoured Kevlar nowadays), boots, gloves, new helmet, I know she'll be on it, I might as well sanction it.
 
I apologise for causing this drift of topic by a passing remark.
 
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