A Colorado woman was reportedly denied a kidney transplant operation due to her vaccine status, said state Rep. Tim Geitner.
The woman had a donor ready, and the surgery was set to take place at the University of Colorado Hospital, Geitner said in a video Tuesday on Facebook.
She was ultimately rejected from receiving the surgery because she is unvaccinated, the GOP representative said.
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The situation is “incredibly frustrating, incredibly sad, incredibly disgusting,” he said.
A person’s status as vaccinated is a requirement for the hospital’s organ transplant patients “in almost all situations,” UCHealth spokesman Dan Weaver said, without commenting on any specific patient.
The fact that a person wanting a transplant must meet a set of prerequisites before surgery is not new hospital policy and predates COVID-19, Weaver said.
“Patients may also be required to avoid alcohol, stop smoking, or prove they will be able to continue taking their anti-rejection medications long after their transplant surgery,” he said. “These requirements increase the likelihood that a transplant will be successful and the patient will avoid rejection.”
The woman will be taken off the hospital’s active transplant list if she remains unvaccinated by late October, according to a letter shared by Geitner on Twitter.
UCHealth denies life saving treatment – kidney transplant – to El Paso County resident. See my FB live post @timgeitnercolorado pic.twitter.com/Z2r8D2VY4m
— Tim Geitner (@tgeitner) October 5, 2021
Details of the letter, including sender information, was covered in the post.
Transplant patients who are not vaccinated are at risk of a higher mortality rate, between 20% and 30%, Weaver said.
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“Patients who have received a transplanted organ are at significant risk from COVID-19,” he wrote. “Should they become infected, they are at particularly high risk of severe illness, hospitalization and death. … A living donor could pass COVID-19 infection on to an organ recipient even if they initially test negative for the disease, putting the patient’s life at risk.”
