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– Colorado woman with stage 5 kidney disease says she had an aligned kidney donor, but health system told her transplant would not take place unless both parties were vaccinated against COVID-19. Leilani Lutani says she has not been vaccinated because there are “too many unknowns,” CBS Denver reports. Potential donor Jaimee Fougner, who met Lutani in a Bible study class less than a year ago, cited religious reasons for not getting the vaccine. Lutani says she was recently informed that a new UCHealth policy requires both donor and recipient to be vaccinated.
Lutani says a September 28 letter from UCHealth told him that she and Fougner had 30 days to begin the vaccination process. The letter said that if she refused to be vaccinated, she would be taken off the transplant list. UCHealth claims that although privacy laws prevent it from discussing specific patients, almost all transplant recipients and donors should be vaccinated, and other transplant centers have similar policies, the Washington post reports. “For transplant patients who contract COVID-19, the death rate ranges from about 20% to over 30%,” the system said in a statement. “This shows the extreme risk COVID-19 poses to transplant recipients after their surgery. ”
UCHealth spokesperson Dan Weaver said transplant centers have long demanded that patients receive other vaccines and it is common practice to ask patients to take other measures, including stop smoking to ensure the success of the transplant. Republican state representative Tim Geitner, who calls the COVID vaccine policy “disgusting,” says he has repeatedly called on the system to make an exception for Lulati, but “there is very little that UCHealth is ready to do it ”. CBS Denver reports that the two unvaccinated women have not found a hospital in Colorado willing to perform the transplant and are now considering options in other states. (Read more stories about the coronavirus vaccine.)
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