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LINK Hospital refusing heart transplant for man who won't get vaccinated

A Boston hospital says it won't consider performing a heart transplant on a patient who refuses to get vaccinated against COVID-19, CBS Boston reports.

DJ Ferguson, 31, is fighting for his life at Brigham and Women's Hospital and in desperate need of a heart transplant.

His father, David Ferguson, is speaking out passionately on behalf of his son who, he told CBS Boston, "has gone to the edge of death to stick to his guns and he's been pushed to the limit."

DJ's family says he was at the front of the line to receive a transplant but hospital policy stipulates that he's no longer eligible because he hasn't received the vaccination. And David Ferguson says his son simply won't.

"It's kind of against his basic principles — he doesn't believe in it," David Ferguson says. "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."

Brigham and Women's released a statement saying, "Like many other transplant programs in the United States — the 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."

Dr. Arthur Caplan, the head of medical ethics at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, explains that being vaccinated is necessary for this type of procedure.

"Post any transplant, kidney, heart whatever, your immune system is shut off," Caplan said. "The flu could kill you, a cold could kill you, COVID could kill you. The organs are scarce, we are not going to distribute them to someone who has a poor chance of living when others who are vaccinated have a better chance post-surgery of surviving."

DJ is a father of two children with a third child on the way. His family says they're not sure what they plan to do. They're thinking about transferring him, but he may be too weak to be moved.

"We are aggressively pursuing all options, but we are running out of time," David Ferguson said.

And while the family says DJ has received great care from doctors and nurses at Brigham and Women's, they just don't agree with the heart transplant COVID vaccination policy.

"I think my boy is fighting pretty damn courageously and he has integrity and principles he really believes in and that makes me respect him all the more," David Ferguson said.

Which is why the family is sticking by his side and hoping for the best. "It's his body. It's his choice," Ferguson added.

HippieChick58 9 Jan 25
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26 comments

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18

"His body, his choice." OK. Hospital's heart, Hospital's choice. STFU.

17

To get an organ transplant you have to meet LOTS of guidelines. For example, no livers for folks with ETOH addiction. IIRC, you have to be not drinking for a set amount time before being considered (used to be six months... I think) . Vaccines etc go right along with this.

COVID is really awful in the immunocompromised patient population. If this young man gets a heart, his immune system WILL be suppressed to keep his body from rejecting the organ. COVID could easily kill him -- and quickly - and a person who takes the vaccine will have a much better time of it than he would. Same for taking the influenza vaccine, or having a good care support structure, etc. Early on, the death rate for organ transplant recipients who caught COVID was frighteningly high.... It has improved with vaccines -- it gives recipients a fighting chance at least.

I'm not a medical care provider - but have worked very closely with transplant programs in the past.

There is ALWAYS a shortage of organs for transplantation. ALWAYS.

Ohub Level 7 Jan 25, 2022
16

Yeah let’s waste hundreds of thousands of dollars on this dipshit and give him a new heart and then he gets Covid and dies and wastes a good heart that someone who has been vaccinated could of used. I’m so sick of these god damned people! 😡

15

So let the dumbass die with his "principles" in tact, and give the heart to someone who is vaccinated.
ZERO sympathy for this guy.
One less idiot on this rock.

13

I'm not surprised by this at all. My oldest daughter is a nurse and was an anti-vaxxer. Then she got breast cancer and has to take chemo twice a week. It turned her around quickly because she was told they cannot treat her unless she is vaccinated. No vaccine, no chemo.

Glad she “saw the light”, and hope her treatment is successful. 😉

13

It makes sense and is the right decision. If he gets the transplant then gets covid and dies, it's a heart that could have saved a life of someone who was doing everything they could to keep living. They won't transplant a heart to a smoker, or anyone else who won't change harmful behaviors.

This sounds like an interesting ethics problem. Are there laws regarding what can and cannot be restricted /regulated on the basis of vaccination or other health status?

@Spongebob obviously..

12

Serves him right. There is a huge waiting list for human hearts.

No point in wasting a rare heart on an unvaccinated dipshit who could easily die from COVID.

10

Why do people think that because they have a choice, they get what they want? No consequence for their choice to be a f-ing idiot because they "did their research" or were "following their principles/morals/ect." It just makes me wonder if doctors dropping babies on their heads as part of the delivery is standard practice.

9

If he doesn't believe in the SCIENCE of the vaccine then why does he believe in the SCIENCE of heart surgery? Decisions have consequences!

9

He's a fucking moron is what he is..

Without a doubt.

9

If he can't follow protocol, tough. He could try and get a pig heart. The guy who got the first pig heart hadn't followed some of the basic heart transplant protocols and fell out of line for a human transfer - not Covid related. Thus, he was able to be a guinea pig and test the procedure.

8

Unbelievable!!! Some love their stupidity even to the point of death.

8

Makes perfect sense, you have a compromised immune system and without a covid vaccination your dead meat and organ is wasted

bobwjr Level 10 Jan 26, 2022

Long may he die slowly and in great agony for his rank stupidity imo.

8

Sow —> Reap

7

The hospital is correct but you just KNOW that not "if" he dies but "WHEN" he dies ... because he thinks he KNOWS more than the DOCTORS...the first thing the family will do is RUN TO THE AMBULANCE CHASING LAWYERS...the Hospital will of course win, but it will cost them $Millions in legal fees...smfh...dude made a BAD choice, refusing the vaccine...guess who knows more about Healthcare and Medicine...OOOOPS...some lucky person is going to get a new chance to LIVE. I have NO SYMPATHY any more...ZERO...ZIP...NADA...NOTHING...FUCK EM.

7

Back in 2011 when I renewed my drivers license I took my name OFF the organ donor list. It isn’t going to go to who really needs it……it’s going to go to the one with the better health insurance. For that reason, I’ll be burned along with the rest of me.

I am no longer on the list because I have come to believe that the donors are still alive enough to feel pain. I have read some stuff that put that in my head. I don't want anyone messing with my remains when I die. I do not want to be autopsied or embalmed. I just want to be planted in the ground and left to rot naturally. My mother-in-law died shortly before covid struck and she had a natural burial. I was so sure that I was going to catch and die from covid that I purchased a cemetery plot where they allow natural burials. I wish we had bought one for my mother too. When she died of covid my family had her cremated and it was 18 months before we buried her with her parents in a no-so natural burial ground.

@MyTVC15 My plan is to be cremated and the ashes scattered over the Atlantic Ocean. No services, no wake, no kind of ceremonies whatsoever. There will be a list of names for relatives to call to let them know I’m gone.

@CuddyCruiser I don't like the idea of cremation and I am pretty sure my mother didn't either. But my brothers thought it would be better to meet her wish to be buried with her parents than to try to get her into a cemetery that did not require putting toxic chemicals into the ground. I was not up for the fight. As I understand it, cremation is just as toxic to the air as embalming fluid and metal caskets and vaults are to the ground water. I'm going into a bio-degradable container and planted under a shade tree where the worms can do what they were intended to do. 🙂

There is a movie from decades back, Salient Green, (sp) where this product was advertised on TV and it was so healthy in an over-populated, polluted word. Edgar G. Robinson acted in it. When a person came to the 'end' they were brought to a pleasant room to see beautiful scenes of trees, animals. After death, they were "processed". Only the rich lived the long opulent life.

7

Read my lips: I. D.O.N.'T. C.A.R.E.

6

I'm so tired of these idiots!

6

In Australia there was a young woman who did drugs and alcohol and destroyed her liver. She cleaned up her life and was put on the transplant list. She got a liver.
After a few years she went back to taking drugs and drinking.
Her new liver failed.
She cleaned up her act and asked to be put on the lists again.
She was told no.
They refused to budge saying she had already been given the gift of new life and she threw that away and would not be considered for a new liver as she would not need it if she had not gone back to drugs and drinking.
Her parents went to the media to try and make people sympathetic to her. Backfired big time as pretty much everyone said that she had destroyed two livers and only got clean to get on the lists again.
She died.

The same goes for this man, why give a much needed organ to someone who does not stand a chance against the viruses out there, has he had a flu vax? Will he follow all of the mask/social distancing. And if he does not trust vaxxes why would he trust the myriad of drugs he will be put on for the rest of his life.
Sorry he is making this decision and his family will have to live with it.

The big motivator for drug and alcohol abusers is the concept of 'hitting bottom.' With others becoming enablers that concept starts to ring hollow.

Very reminiscent of a certain Australian media personality who also got elected to Parliament, his ORIGINAL liver was so fucked up by his drinking and he got a new one, swore that he'd "NEVER ever drink Alcohol again," but has been seen boozing it up many many times since making that oath.
Imo, yet another very precious gift gone to waste.

@Triphid Don't know that one I want to the red beetroot from Qld joyce but did not know much about him before his lied his way into parliament.

@Budgie The one I am referring to is Derryn Hinch, does that ring a bell?
As to the "beetroot faced Banana -brain Joyce" well no0one knew he was still a Kiwi citizen when he stood for election and, I'm guessing, still is knowing how the Lying Narcissist Party (LNP) are experts at covering things up to suit themselves.

@Triphid Forgot about him but wow I knew he was an alcoholic he so does not deserve a new liver.

6

Idiots,get the vaccine!Is it worth your life to prove that you're right?

5

To put it mildly, I say "Fuck Him" his choice, he pays for his choice.
Someone, somewhere DIED for him to RECEIVE their heart and he wants to disrespect, imo, the kindness and decency of that person by REFUSING to be vaccinated and thus wasting such a very precious gift, etc, etc.
And, in addition just for this self-righteous Dickwad, D.I.L.L.I. G.A.F., in other words "roll over anbd die numb-nuts, then the heart can go someone who will TRULY appreciate the greatness of such a GIFT.

5

As I was reading this I was thinking. "Damn, I bet it is fucking miserable laying in B&W with a bad heart, too weak to be moved to another hospital. I wonder how many more times miserably it would be to be recuperating from a heart transplant and be dying of covid at the same time." I want to say to him " you think you're in pain now, try adding covid to the mix."

5

Integrity and principles my ass. This should have been prefaced with 'A lack of...' He's so determined, let him become a martyr for his (insane) cause. Good hospitals are finally waking up. The do not harm idea should not mean enabling people's bad and/or stupid behavior.

5

He's dead meat

bobwjr Level 10 Jan 26, 2022
4

My sister had a bone marrow transplant at B&W. She had no immunity and although the transplant was successful she died from viral pneumonia. You have no immunity to anything when you are going through a process like that. This guy could also die easily from the flu or even a cold, as the article states. I wonder, are they also requiring him to get the flu vax? I understand why people are skeptical of pharmaceutical companies and the medical industry in general. In my sister's case, from one prospective, the cure was what killed her, not the leukemia. I saw what chemotherapy did to her and I vowed that if I ever was told I needed chemo, I would take a pass. TBH, I am not sure that I would opt for an organ transplant either. My body, my choice, as they say but if I did, I would also have made the decision to follow all the instructions given to me and if that meant getting a vax, I would. Obviously, I have been shot three times (so far).

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