CRUEL: Unvaccinated Man Denied Heart Transplant by Boston Hospital
Americans are facing a strange new pandemic of prejudice in 2022, as a number of organizations and establishments continue to discriminate against and segregate the unvaccinated from the vaccinated, and it’s beginning to get to the point where such separation could be deadly.
In restaurants and concert halls, as well as on many domestic flights, those who’ve chosen not to receive a COVID vaccination are being excluded and mistreated. In some schools, this personal medical decision could even see you corralled around like cattle.
Now, in a stunning turn of events, choosing to remain unvaccinated could see you denied life-or-death medical help.
A Boston hospital is defending itself after a man’s family claimed he was denied a new heart for refusing to be vaccinated against COVID-19, saying most transplant programs around the country set similar requirements to improve patients’ chances of survival.
The family of D.J. Ferguson said in a crowdfunding appeal this week that officials at Brigham and Women’s Hospital told the 31-year-old father of two that he was ineligible for the procedure because he hasn’t been vaccinated against the coronavirus.
“We are literally in a corner right now. This is extremely time sensitive,” the family said in its fundraising appeal, which has raised tens of thousands of dollars. “This is not just a political issue. People need to have a choice!”
The patient had serious, well-researched concerns.
D.J.’s mother, Tracey Ferguson, insists that her son isn’t against vaccinations, noting he’s had other immunizations in the past. But the trained nurse said Wednesday that he’s been diagnosed with atrial fibrillation — an irregular and often rapid heart rhythm — and that he has concerns about the side effects of the COVID-19 vaccine.
“D.J. is an informed patient,” Tracey Ferguson said in a brief interview at her home in Mendon, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) southwest of Boston. “He wants to be assured by his doctors that his condition would not be worse or fatal with this COVID vaccine.”
Sadly, D.J.’s case is not the first such discriminatory incident, and it certainly won’t be the last unless a dramatic shift in thinking was to occur within the medical establishment.
