A Cleveland hospital is reportedly denying a life-saving kidney transplant to a 9-year-old child because his father has opted not to receive one of the controversial COVID-19 vaccine.
The Donaldson family was stricken by medical misfortune in 2018, when it was determined that their son Tanner would need a new kidney. Fortunately, father Dane Donaldson proved to be a perfect donor match for his son, reports the Epoch Times.
Because transplanted kidneys tend to have a lifespan of around 20 years, the Donaldson family opted to delay the procedure.
Now, four years later, Cleveland Clinic Children’s Hospital refuses to transplant the father’s kidney into his 9-year-old son, saving his life, because Dane Donaldson is unvaccinated.
The hospital claims that saving the boy’s life is not worth the potential risk to the father.
“Individuals who are actively infected with COVID-19 have a much higher rate of complications during and after surgery,” said the hospital in a statement, “even if the infection is asymptomatic.”
According to Donaldson, speaking to Epoch Times, the same rule does not apply to deceased donors.
“I asked them in that car accident victim, would you vaccinate him on the way to the hospital to rip his kidney out and they said ‘no’,” said Donaldson.
The father offered to sign a waiver protecting the hospital from liability should he or his son contract COVID-19 during their hospital stay, but the hospital said no to his offer.
This is not the first time American hospitals have denied life saving treatment because of a patient’s vaccination status.
In January of this year, Massachusetts man D.J. Ferguson made headlines when he said that Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston refused to provide a heart transplant surgery on grounds that he refused the controversial jabs.
The hospital ultimately defended its decision, saying that the man did not deserve the new lease on life because his refusal to get the vaccine diminishes the likelihood of his long term survival.
“Since there is a shortage of donor organs, transplant centers only place patients on the waiting list whom they deem the most likely to survive with a new organ,” reported US News.
