“We’re running out of time,” Heather Dawson writes on her Facebook profile and on the GoFundMe page she and her family set up for boyfriend and father of her children, DJ Ferguson. Ferguson seriously ill: Due to a congenital heart defect, fluid collects in the heart and lungs of the 31-year-old American.
At the end of November he was taken to the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston (Massachusetts). In the meantime, the heart of the young father – he and his partner Heather already have two small sons, she is currently pregnant with their third child – no longer works independently. The hospital put him on the organ transplant list. Because DJ Ferguson is such an urgent case, he was already the top priority for a new heart – but he’s now been removed from the list. The reason: He is not vaccinated and wants to remain so under all circumstances.
“My son doesn’t believe in Covid-19 vaccinations. It is one of his basic principles not to be vaccinated,” David Ferguson, father of the heart patient, told CBS. “Now the hospital is enforcing a tough policy and has removed him from the list. My son insists on his principles and will do so to the point of death,” says the desperate father and grandfather. But the hospital, which is part of the elite Harvard University, has clear regulations for patients who are on the donor list – and this includes vaccination against the corona virus.
In order to be considered for an organ donation, a patient must meet a number of requirements: not drinking alcohol, smoking and other aspects related to age and previous illnesses are just as important as vaccination. Most medical facilities in the United States now require their patients to be vaccinated against the corona virus before they can have a procedure.
Medical ethicist Arthur Caplan from New York University told CBS that the vaccination is necessary before the transplant because the patient’s immune system is temporarily paralyzed by the procedure: “Donor organs are rare. So we can’t give them to someone who has a slim chance of survival,” explains Caplan. In the United States alone, nearly 110,000 people are waiting for an organ transplant.
A spokesman for Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where Ferguson is currently being treated, told the New York Post: “We are doing everything we can to ensure that our organ recipients have the highest possible probability of survival . All unvaccinated patients are not active on the recipient lists.” This is also the case in many other hospitals in the USA, the spokesman confirmed, who also referred to the official recommendation of the health authority “CD”: This states that organ recipients should have a lifestyle that optimizes their chances of survival after a transplant. And that includes a Covid-19 vaccination.
In order to be considered for an organ donation, a patient must meet a number of requirements: not drinking alcohol, smoking and other aspects related to age and previous illnesses are just as important as vaccination. Most medical facilities in the United States now require their patients to be vaccinated against the corona virus before they can have a procedure.
Medical ethicist Arthur Caplan from New York University told CBS that the vaccination is necessary before the transplant because the patient’s immune system is temporarily paralyzed by the procedure: “Donor organs are rare. So we can’t give them to someone who has a slim chance of survival,” explains Caplan. In the United States alone, nearly 110,000 people are waiting for an organ transplant.
