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Anti-vaxxer heart transplant patients should be placed behind the vaxxed heart transplant patients.

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Surely you can find one more reputable reporting on this story.

Health care IS a human right.

There are a more patients in need of a heart transplant than there are donor hearts to go around.

This requires that the limited number of available hearts go to where they will do the most good.

Heart recipients are required to take immune suppressing drugs in order to adjust to the transplant. That renders them particularly prone to infection by a lot of diseases.

For this reason, they are required to be vaccinated against a lot of diseases BEFORE they get the transplant.

We are currently in the midst of a global pandemic, against which vaccines have been proven to reduce risks associated with infection.

This fucking idiot believes he is entitled to squander the opportunity he wants to DENY to some other patient, by receiving one of the limited number of available hearts based on his completely voluntary non-compliance with the protocol required for this form of health care.

Yes, health care is a right. He has voluntarily chosen to reject what is required to receive this form of health care.

It is his right to reject to receive treatment, and that is what he is doing here.

I posted just below you and said almost the same thing only not as well. Good post Effete Snob, I would say the Snob part is not earned.

Wish I could rec it! Well stated

but you have to do your part. It would be a wasted heart as his immune system would be so compromised it would be almost impossible for him not to get Covid and reject it. Still, even without that each and every one of us has our own responsibilities for our health. Easy, a shot. Even 2 or 2 and a booster. Lots of surgeries and treatments depend on the patient to make themselves ready. Without that, no treatment. It has been this way for a very long time. Hearts are not sitting around in baskets waiting for patients. Patients who take care of themselves and follow the criteria are waiting.

I have been away from the practice for a long time, I was a critical care nurse. I am sure that a lot has changed since I was practicing. We did not do heart transplants until very late in my time so I mostly prepped patients for removal of organs. I am NOT practicing now so listen more to those who do but some things never change, the way a body works is pretty much the same as always so there is that.

Still the answer to you would be yes. You cannot get some joint replacements without weight loss requirements. Hell, you cannot even get weight loss surgeries unless you drop some weight in some cases.

Obesity causes so many problems with all your systems it just makes everything more difficult and for some, not all, it shows that the patient has not the ability to follow what is needed to be healthy. **Make certain you see that part....some, not all.

I have been going through some rough heart problems. I was told to lose some weight because it would help. I was about 10 pounds over weight. Imagine what 200 pounds would do or even 50.

of it, it's your own choice.

Vaccines, in this case, are part of the healthcare.

up dying from Covid a month after they got the heart. It should go to someone responsible.

that could potentially save someone's life who has a better chance of surviving should they get COVID.

There have ALWAYS been long list of requirments to be placed on a transplant list and right now there are fewer organs than ever available. As a retired transplant team member, you participate in your care by following the rules or we move on to the next person. That's the way it should be.

We don't have sufficient organs to transplant for even a small percentage of those who need them and the selfish unvaccinated are decreasing those organs further. (In case you don't know, organs from a COVID-19 positive deceased patient can NOT be harvested* in nearly all cases. There is no way to render those organs safe IF the deceased died symptomatic with COVID-19, albeit a very tiny proportion of asymptomatic donors* have been accepted)


So, no. We owe it to the selfLESS organ donor to make sure their gift is not wasted. And to give it to a vaccine-refuser (with the exception of those very few who can NOT be vaccinated) is to waste an invaluable gift for life.

Wouldn’t it make sense to make sure patients are up to date on their vaccination? I can’t see how it should just be about covid vaccine.

But my cardio-vascular surgeon told me that if I continued to smoke, he wouldn't treat me.

Rights come with responsibility.

of the care being offered, the health care system shouldn't be expected to give them the care they want if doing so interferes with the right of others to the same care. There is a long list of people waiting for organ transplants, and the protocols are that these scarce organs are given to people who are likely to benefit from them. An active alcoholic will not be eligible for a liver transplant, nor will a smoker be eligible for a lung transplant, because the organs they would receive would be damaged by their drinking or smoking and the transplant would ultimately fail. A potential organ transplant recipient who refuses a covid vaccine is not likely to survive the pandemic simply because organ recipients have to take drugs that suppress their immune systems, leaving them sitting ducks for a covid infection. Even with the vaccine they are more susceptible to infection but at least they would have a better chance of survival.

So I had to Yandex it.

That “1st on the list” is crap. There are a lot of factors in the individual and a lot of individuals. It’s not like Starbucks where there is a line.

to even be placed on a transplant list....If one does even take a puff, it will be detected and off the list for 6 months.....must be clean to resume being on the list..

So, I am not at all surprised about being vaccinated....

Should we give liver transplants to people who will not quit drinking?

The transplant recipient takes drugs to suppress the immune system so their body will not reject the new organ. That makes them extremely vulnerable to viruses and bacteriological infections. The prognosis of a transplant patient who will not take the basic steps to protect themselves from infection is very poor.

There are a limited number of donor organs available. Demand outstrips supply. These organs should not be wasted.

People that refuse the jab should be removed from all transplant lists. As long as transplants are a scarcity they should go to the “best match” possible. That includes removing people unwilling to do their bit to protect themselves from disease.

Most states require 6 months of abstention, but that doesn't make an alcoholic not an alcoholic.

In addition, the trend is to shorten (or even eliminate) the waiting period for liver transplants.

(I have no personal knowledge as to the rules for lung transplants - but I have both personal knowlege and research-based knowledge about liver transplants. Smoking may be different - since smoking hinders healing = generally)

Nor do they need vaccines.

Didn't you know that?

He made his choice.

In order to even get on the waiting list for a transplant there are a number of lifestyle changes required (if you're a smoker, you need to stop; if you're a drinker, you need to stop, as well), and strict adherence to medical advice and medication regimen is also expected (since you're going to be on immunosuppressant drugs after receiving your transplant, that means being vaccinated against relevant pathogens).

and people's right to theirs extremely seriously? Some few, no doubt. Others make creating standards for every decision to be held to their specific life's work.

I support the guidelines developed as medicine advanced by many compassionate and highly ethical experts who had to figure out how societies can and should do their best by all. Of course.

Hearts are scarce resources. There are not enough for all who need them. Every solid organ has criteria to be on the list. Once you get on the list it is need-based - unless you violat the list rules, or no longer meet the criteria.

One of the criteria for all solid organs is the ability to follow medical advice (abstaining from alcohol for liver transplants, abstaning from using marijuana - even if you are in a state where it is legal, etc.). Ablity to comply with medical orders is critical because of the strict drug regimen you have to follow to avoid rejecting the organ.

Yes, health care is a human right. But people die on the transplant lists all the time because not enough people donate ther organs. If you can't follow simple, life-saving, medical advice when you are at your most desperate - the chances you will be able to follow it post-transplant are slim to none. The heart - which has many people competing for it - must go to someone who has demonstrated the minimum medical compliance necessary to avoid wasting it.