Ineligible for a transplant because not vaccinated against Covid-19?
DJ Ferguson, 31, has been removed from the list of people eligible for a heart transplant at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, reports the BBC.
Partly because of his non-vaccination against Covid-19.
"Given the shortage of available organs, we are doing everything we can to ensure that a patient who receives a transplanted organ has the best chance of survival," the establishment said in a statement.
“The Covid-19 vaccine and lifestyle behaviors of transplant candidates should allow for the best chance of success in the operation and to optimize patient survival after transplant, given that their immune system is significantly weakened. “, justified a spokesperson for the hospital.
As the BBC notes, DJ Ferguson's non-vaccination may only be part of the explanation, but the hospital declined to comment further on the patient's situation.
“Organs are rare, we are not going to distribute them to someone who has little chance of living while others who are vaccinated have a better chance of surviving after the operation”, justified Dr Arthur Caplan , medical ethics officer at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, to CBS News.
Not a first in the United States
The Covid-19 vaccine goes against "his principles, he doesn't believe in it," his father, David Ferguson, told the BBC.
"It's his body.
It's his choice.
His son has been hospitalized since November 26.
He suffers from an inherited heart condition that causes his lungs to fill with blood and fluid.
“This problem has taken its toll on his body and his heart is currently functioning at an extremely low percentage,” one of his friends wrote in a fundraiser posted on the GoFundMe site.
While he was indeed removed from the roster, no transplant is available for David Ferguson.
Brigham and Women's Hospital added that most of the 100,000 people on waiting lists for organ transplants will not receive an organ within five years due to shortages of available organs.
As the BBC always reminds, in no first in the United States, a Minnesota woman sued her local hospital a few weeks ago after doctors tried to remove her unvaccinated husband's ventilator.