Hospitals in the United States are turning down non-vaccinated people for critical operations, including organ transplants, a Washington state patient lamented during the ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’ show on Fox News on Wednesday.
The patient, Derek Kovick, told host Tucker Carlson that the University of Washington Medical Center is striking down the names of the patients on transplant lists if they refuse to get Covid-19 vaccines.
Kovick said he has been on the transplant list for a third liver transplant since last fall. This past week, when he went to the University of Washinton in Seattle to have a procedure done, he was shocked to find his name removed from the transplant list.
“Before I came up, a nurse called me and said that the infectious disease team had met and decided that all of his transplant patients now have to have a vaccine, otherwise we will be placed ‘Status 7’ which means you aren’t going to be on the transplant list – you don’t have to requalify, but you basically have to adhere to the rules which including having a COVID vaccine,” Kovick recounted.
Kovick said he was informed about the decision at the “last minute” and was told by a hospital staffer he should be getting vaccinated as soon as possible to get his name back on the list.
“The conditions naturally changed because the issues that I had with my liver: a high fever and other side effects that are blatantly what some of my peers have experienced are a side effect from any of the COVID shots,” he said, adding that the symptoms of his liver condition are those of the coronavirus shots are exactly the same.
He said that taking COVID-19 shots to qualify for being on the transplant list could aggravate his conditions since he is already having the symptoms that patients suffer after taking the shots.
“I thought that maybe my medical freedom was starting to be challenged a little bit for myself: I’ve seen it happen through the whole United States, but nowhere it is in my kitchen.”
Tucker also patched in Seattle journalist Jason Rant, who said another man identified as Sam Allen had made a similar claim that hospitals were turning away patients that had not undertaken vaccine shots. Allen said he had received a letter to that effect after he told his doctor he wouldn’t take a vaccine shot because of the risks of cardiac problems for someone who is already ailing from a weak heart.
“Your name has been removed from the waitlist at the University of Washington Medical Center. This was done in follow-up to your recent conversation with providers regarding the heart transplant selection committee’s concerns about compliance with COVID-19-related policies and recommendations,” the letter issued by the hospital said, KTTH reported.
The letter also said that they would reconsider the application should the patient comply with the hospital mandate.
“We can re-assess you for reinstatement on the waiting list should the compliance concerns resolve in the future or, if you wish, refer you to another centre for evaluation in the meantime,” the letter read.
Tucker Carlson came down hard against such preconditions, describing the situation as “beyond belief” for essentially abandoning the patients to die just because they refused to comply with unrelated medical procedures.
