A 31-year-old father who has a hereditary heart condition that causes his heart and lungs to fill with fluid and blood has been removed from the top of the heart transplant list because he doesn’t believe in Covid vaccines.
DJ Ferguson, a father of two, was denied the transplant by Boston Brigham and Women’s Hospital because he is unvaccinated.
The hospital explained that all transplant recipients must get the vaccine to “create both the best chance for successful operation and also the patient’s survival after transplantation.”
But Ferguson’s father, David, said getting the vaccine is “kind of against his basic principles.”
“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,” he said.
“It’s his body. It’s his choice.”
According to UCHealth, the mortality rate for transplant recipients who fall ill with Covid is over 20 percent.
Speaking to CBS Boston, David said: “It’s a policy they are enforcing and so because he won’t get the shot, they took him off the list of a heart transplant.
“My son has gone to the edge of death to stick to his guns and he’s been pushed to the limit.”
The family is now considering transferring him to a different hospital. But Ferguson’s wife, Heather Dawson, said that he may be too weak to move.
Dawson took to Facebook and wrote: “At this point DJ is unable to leave the hospital until he gets the heart surgery he needs. Without the surgery his lungs and heart will continue to fill up with blood and fluid (on top of everything else that’s going on).”
Dr. Arthur Caplan, the head of Medical Ethics at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, said to CBS Boston that the vaccine is a requirement for transplants.
“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,” he explained.
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