Teen denied kidney transplant because she’s not vaccinated for COVID, say parents
Showing on “Fox & Buddies Weekend” on Saturday morning to debate the dire medical dilemma their household is going through, the mother and father of a teenage woman who is just not vaccinated towards COVID-19 revealed that their daughter has been unable to maneuver ahead with the kidney transplant she wants at Duke College Hospital in Durham, North Carolina.
Chrissy Hicks, the mother of 14-year-old Yulia Hicks, recounted her alternate concerning the concern with a medical official.
“I mentioned, ‘So mainly you are telling us if she doesn’t get the vaccine, then she’s not getting a transplant,'” Chrissy Hicks mentioned. “And [the medical employee] mentioned, ‘Sure, that’s the one factor that’s holding us up.’”
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Chrissy and Lee Hicks of North Carolina adopted their daughter Yulia from Ukraine almost two years in the past.
The couple has eight organic kids and three who’re adopted, this system famous.
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The woman suffers from a uncommon degenerative kidney situation often called Senior Loken Syndrome, which requires a transplant, based on experiences.
Although she is just not vaccinated towards COVID, she has had the coronavirus — so the mother and father consider she’s protected by pure immunities.
Dad Lee Hicks mentioned on Saturday morning, “We have been up entrance your complete time we have been seen at Duke, for the final two years, that we weren’t snug with the vaccine — with the COVID-19 vaccine. And they also knew all alongside that we weren’t snug with this.”
The dad added, “And it wasn’t a requirement. It was … a suggestion, based on [the doctors] at first — till the very finish.”
Lee Hicks mentioned that their daughter obtained a “nine-hour [medical] workup” in October.
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“And that is once they [the doctors and hospital officials] determined or advised us that this was going to be a extremely recommended-slash-requirement for her to get a vaccine earlier than she would get the transplant.”
He added, “So the cellphone name … That is when [the official] mentioned it is not a requirement, it is [a] suggestion, however she can’t get the transplant with out the vaccine.”
Chrissy Hicks additionally mentioned on “Fox & Buddies Weekend,” “We now have retained a lawyer … to assist us struggle Duke [Hospital].”
She added, “However we do not need Yulia’s life caught up with the litigation. We’re hoping {that a} medical middle can step ahead and say, ‘Come right here, we’ll provide the transplant with out the vaccination.'”
The mother and father have arrange a web site for his or her daughter, they mentioned — YuliaGrace.com.
“If there is a medical middle on the market that can take [our daughter] as a affected person, we’d love for them to achieve out to us,” Chrissy Hicks added.
The mother additionally mentioned, “We now have 11 kids. So it is probably not financially accessible for us to go on our personal out of state to [get] the surgical procedure.”
Duke Youngsters’s Hospital & Well being Heart, it notes on its web site, is ranked among the many prime kids’s hospitals nationally in 9 specialties by U.S. Information & World Report; it supplies take care of hundreds of pediatric sufferers yearly.
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Fox Information Digital reached out to the hospital system on Saturday.
Duke Well being officers shared the next remark.
“Our hearts exit to all households dealing with the intense sickness of a liked one, and we’re dedicated to creating organ transplant accessible to as many eligible sufferers as doable,” the officers mentioned.
“We now have supplied greater than 10,000 organ transplants since 1965,” they continued. “Eligibility for organ transplant is a posh medical willpower knowledgeable by many well being elements to make sure the most effective outcomes. These determinations are made in session with households and medical professionals and comply with the newest medical proof and regulatory pointers that each one transplant facilities should comply with.”
Duke Well being mentioned additional, “To guard affected person privateness, we can’t touch upon particular person instances.”
Alex Berenson, a former New York Occasions investigative reporter, shared on his Substack this previous Wednesday that the 14-year-old woman was refused a kidney transplant at Duke College Hospital as a result of she was not vaccinated for COVID-19, as Outkick reported.
Outkick famous in its article that “based on Berenson, Yulia Hicks would wish to get the vaccine earlier than the hospital would carry out her surgical procedure. Hicks, who’s initially from Ukraine, already had COVID and has recovered.” Berenson spoke to the woman’s mother and father.
Many hospital techniques across the nation both advocate or require that sufferers on transplant lists be absolutely vaccinated previous to transplantation.
The College of California San Francisco well being system, as an illustration, accommodates “affected person schooling” data that shares that steering.
“Sure, it’s strongly beneficial all sufferers on the transplant checklist be absolutely vaccinated previous to transplantation,” the positioning says.
It provides, “As soon as an individual is immunosuppressed on the time of transplant, response to a vaccine might be much less sturdy than earlier than.”
That website additionally says, “We strongly encourage that each one eligible household and family members residing with transplant recipients be vaccinated, together with booster doses. Transplant recipients are more likely to have a suboptimal response to the vaccine, so one of the simplest ways for all shut contacts to guard them is to be absolutely vaccinated.”
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In one other instance, the College of Maryland Medical Heart in Baltimore, Maryland, says on its web site that it “understands that transplant sufferers — each these already transplanted and people awaiting one — have particular questions associated to the COVID-19 vaccine.”
It shares the next FAQ: “Ought to transplant sufferers get vaccinated?”
Its reply: “Sure. We encourage transplant recipients to get the COVID-19 vaccine when doable.”
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Brigham and Girls’s Hospital in Massachusetts shares this notice on its web site: “Like most different transplant applications throughout the nation, the COVID-19 vaccine is one among a number of vaccines and way of life behaviors which can be required for sufferers awaiting strong organ transplant.”
It provides, “Transplant candidates should additionally obtain the seasonal influenza and hepatitis B vaccines, comply with different wholesome behaviors, and reveal they will decide to taking the required medicines following transplant.”
