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

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.