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Colorado Hospital System Says Unvaxxed Patients Won’t Get Transplants in ‘Almost All Situations’

“For transplant patients who contract COVID-19, the mortality rate ranges from about 20 percent to more than 30 percent,” UCHealth said.

The UCHealth hospital system in Colorado is taking one of the most drastic steps to promote vaccinations: refusing transplants to most unvaccinated patients. “For transplant patients who contract COVID-19, the mortality rate ranges from about 20% to more than 30%,” UCHealth told CBS Denver. “This shows the extreme risk that COVID-19 poses to transplant recipients after their surgeries.” The move was discovered when a woman who tried donating a kidney to a woman with stage 5 renal failure was denied because both she and the patient were not vaccinated. “I said I’ll sign a medical waiver. I have to sign a waiver anyway for the transplant itself, releasing them from anything that could possibly go wrong,” Leilani Lutali, who needs the kidney, said. “It’s surgery, it’s invasive. I sign a waiver for my life. I’m not sure why I can’t sign a waiver for the COVID shot.” The hospital system said it imposed the policy to protect patients and staff, citing other systems having the same vaccination-for-transplant policy in place.