Denver, CO — “Here I am, willing to be a direct donor to her. It does not affect any other patient on the transplant list. How can I sit here and allow them to murder my friend when I’ve got a perfectly good kidney and can save her life?” Jaimee Fougner stated.
Fougner was speaking to a CBS affiliate in Denver, Colorado after the University of Colorado Hospital (UCH) sent a letter to Leilani Lutali stating she would not be allowed to receive a necessary kidney transplant unless she and the donor submitted to taking a COVID-19 shot. Fougner, a friend of Lutali, agreed to donate one of her kidneys.
Some individual doctors, like one in Florida last month, have already stated they would deny healthcare to those who have not taken the shot. This story involves an entire hospital system denying lifesaving care, and it may be statewide in Colorado as the report states that Fougner and Lutali have been unable to find another hospital to perform the transplant unless they’ve been jabbed leaving them to look out-of-state.
The letter from UCH reads almost like a ransom note. It states that it’s “necessary to place you inactive on the waiting list … for noncompliance by not receiving the COVID vaccine,” and they have 30 days to comply with the jab requirement or be pulled from the transplant waiting list altogether.
“If your decision is to refuse COVID vaccination you will be removed from the kidney transplant list. You will continue to accrue waiting time, but you will not receive a kidney offer while listed inactive. Once you complete the COVID vaccination series you will be reactivated on the kidney transplant list pending any other changes in your health condition,” the letter states.
Lutali suffers from stage 5 renal failure, or end-stage renal disease. Denying the transplant is a death sentence, according to the Mayo Clinic which describes the disease: “With end-stage renal disease, you need dialysis or a kidney transplant to stay alive. But you may also choose to forgo dialysis or transplant and opt for conservative care to manage your symptoms — aiming for the best quality of life possible during your remaining time.”
The decision by UCH came as a shock to Lutali who said the hospital confirmed there was no vax requirement in August, but by Sept. 28 the hospital reversed course.
“It’s your choice on what treatment you have,” Fougner said. “In Leilani’s case, the choice has been taken from her. Her life has now been held hostage because of this mandate.”
“I said I’ll sign a medical waiver,” said Lutali. “I have to sign a waiver anyway for the transplant itself, releasing them from anything that could possibly go wrong. 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 move by UCH violates the Hippocratic oath’s principle of “first do no harm” as well as the American Medical Associations (AMA) Code of Medical Ethics.
The AMA’s ethics code includes 11 chapters, which arguably this move violates every principle of ethics outlined in the code. But, one clear violation is in Chapter 2 concerning consent, communication and decision-making which states: “Informed consent to medical treatment is fundamental in both ethics and law. It helps patients make well-considered decisions about their care and treatment.”
While this hospital wants to deny a lifesaving procedure, cases of doctors and nurses being forced to perform the life-taking procedure of abortion have occurred in America.
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