By writer to www.wnep.com
A girl in Lycoming County was notified final week that she is not going to be eligible for a kidney transplant as a result of she refuses to get vaccinated for COVID-19.
MUNCY, Pa. — Sherry Breen of Muncy, who suffers from Stage four kidney illness, was informed by docs at Geisinger that she is not going to be eligible for a kidney transplant until she agrees to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
“Sometime, my life will hopefully be again to regular and obtain a transplant, after which after I was informed I could not obtain the transplant with out the vaccine, it was actually a mixture of irritation, frustration, and worry,” Breen stated.
Transplant hospitals like Geisinger are legally allowed to require transplant donors and recipients to be vaccinated.
Geisinger issued this assertion to WNEP on the matter:
“Based mostly on overwhelming knowledge and proposals from numerous specialists, together with our personal, we now have determined to require all transplant sufferers obtain the COVID-19 vaccine.”
Breen began dialysis six years in the past and has been on a kidney transplant checklist ever since. She additionally highlighted that she has a protracted line of well being issues, together with Lyme illness.
“The hope finally was that I might obtain a kidney transplant to alleviate me of dialysis. The life expectancy on dialysis is about 6 to eight, perhaps ten years.”
In accordance with Breen, she is immunocompromised and fears that the long-term results of the vaccine will hurt her.
“Due to my immune system’s response to issues through the years, I’m actually frightened of the vaccine, and never figuring out what the long-term unwanted side effects are, and the way my immune system will deal with it.”
Not all transplant hospitals require recipients to be vaccinated in opposition to COVID-19. Breen has been speaking with different hospitals about the potential of a transplant.
“UPMC opinions sufferers on a case-by-case foundation. So, if they give the impression of being by my file and determine that the vaccine is perhaps too dangerous for her, which is how I really feel, then I would not be required to obtain it earlier than transplant,” Breen stated.
Newswatch 16 reached out to UPMC, and we discovered that it at the moment doesn’t require any proof of vaccination standing for transplant recipients. If UPMC does conform to a transplant, then Breen must be placed on a ready checklist.
— to www.wnep.com
