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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado – A woman in El Paso County says she will not be able to get a kidney transplant through UCHealth because she is not vaccinated against COVID-19.
Leilani Lutali learned about this after receiving a letter, dated September 28, from the UCHealth transplant center at her Anschutz medical campus:
“The University of Colorado Hospital Transplant Team has determined that it is necessary to place you inactive on the waiting list. You will be inactivated on the list for non-compliance by not receiving the vaccine. COVID. You will have 30 days to start the series of vaccinations. If your decision is to decline the COVID vaccination, you will be removed from the kidney transplant list. You will continue to accumulate waiting time, but you will not receive supply of kidney as long as you are enrolled inactive. Once you have completed the COVID immunization series, you will be re-enabled on the kidney transplant list pending any further changes in your health. “
“I feel compelled. I feel like my life is in their hands in exchange for a shot, and the attitude is to just shoot,” Lutali told sister Denver7 station KOAA on Tuesday.
The letter garnered a lot of attention, including from State Representative Tim Geitner, a Republican serving in El Paso County.
“The understanding is basically… consistent with this request. Take this COVID vaccine or else you’ll be denied a life-saving procedure,” he said on Tuesday.
In a Facebook Live, state lawmakers said they contacted UCHealth on several occasions to get them to provide an exception.
“I’ve had 2-3 exchanges, actually – a few texts, a few phone calls, a few emails – in and around this issue,” Geitner said. “There’s very little that UCHealth is willing to do … a policy exemption or a policy change or accommodation or whatever.”
UCHealth sent Denver7 the following statement regarding its policy:
“UCHealth’s priority is to provide safe and excellent care for transplant patients before, during and after transplant surgery.
An organ transplant is a one-time surgical procedure that leads to specialized lifelong management to ensure that an organ is not rejected, which can lead to serious complications, the need for a subsequent transplant, and even death. dead. Physicians should consider the short- and long-term health risks to patients when considering recommending an organ transplant.
Transplant centers across the country, including the UCHealth Transplant Center, have specific requirements in place to protect patients during and after surgery. For example, patients may be required to receive vaccines, including hepatitis B, MMR and others. Patients may also be required to avoid alcohol, quit smoking, or prove that they will be able to continue taking their anti-rejection medications long after their transplant. These requirements increase the likelihood that a transplant will be successful and the patient will avoid rejection.
In almost all situations, transplant recipients and living donors at UCHealth must now be vaccinated against COVID-19 in addition to meeting other health requirements and receiving additional vaccinations. Some US transplant centers have already implemented this requirement and others are in the process of making this policy change.
Patients who have received an organ transplant are at significant risk of COVID-19. If they are infected, they are at particularly high risk of serious illness, hospitalization and death. Studies have shown that transplant patients who contract COVID-19 can have a death rate of 20% or more. A living donor could pass the COVID-19 infection to an organ recipient even if they initially test negative for the disease, thus putting the patient’s life at risk.
A large study found that kidney transplant patients who contracted COVID-19 had a death rate of 21%. Other studies have found death rates ranging from 18% to 32% for transplant recipients who have acquired COVID-19. For comparison, the CDC says the current death rate for anyone who has tested positive is 1.6%. This is why it is essential that the recipient and the living donor are vaccinated and take other precautions before undergoing a transplant. Surgeries can be postponed until patients take all necessary precautions to give them the best chance of achieving positive results. “
Lutali told KOAA that a friend of his turns out to be an early partner for a kidney transplant, but because they both oppose the vaccine, UCHealth’s policy will not allow them to transmit .
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