The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Colorado woman who won’t get vaccinated denied transplant
Suppressed immune system would put her at higher risk for COVID-19.
COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. — When a Colorado woman found out her hospital wouldn’t approve her kidney transplant surgery until she got the COVID-19 vaccine, she was left with a difficult decision pitting her health needs against her religious beliefs.
Leilani Lutali, a born-again Christian, went with her faith.
Even though she has stage 5 kidney disease that puts her at risk of dying without a new kidney, Lutali, 56, said she could not agree to be vaccinated because of the role that fetal cell lines played in some vaccine development. Several types of cell lines created decades ago using fetal tissue are widely used in manufacturing or testing of medical products, though the cells used today are clones of the early cells, not the original tissue.
“As a Christian, I can’t support anything that has to do with abortion of babies, and the sanctity of life for me is precious,” she said.
Uchealth requires transplant recipients to be vaccinated because recipients are at significant risk of contracting COVID-19 as well as being hospitalized and dying from the virus, spokesman Dan Weaver said. Unvaccinated donors could also pass COVID-19 to the recipient even if they initially test negative for the disease, he said.
“Studies have found transplant patients who contract COVID-19 may have a mortality rate of 20% or higher,” he said.
It’s not clear how common this type of policy is.
The American Hospital Association, which represents nearly 5,000 hospitals, health care systems and networks in the United States, said it did not have data to share on the issue. But it said
many transplant programs insist that patients get vaccinated for COVID-19 because of the weakened state of their immune system.
While any type of surgery may stress a patient’s immune system and leave them vulnerable to contracting COVID-19 later, organ transplants recipients are even more at risk because they have to take a powerful regime of drugs to suppress their immune system to keep their body from rejecting the new organ, which is seen by the body as a foreign object, Nancy Foster, AHA’S vice president for quality and patient safety policy said in a statement.
“Further, if patients were to wait to get their vaccine until after the surgery, it is unlikely that their immune system could mount the desired antibody reaction given that they are taking anti-rejection medications,” she said.
The best time to get a COVID-19 vaccine is before an organ transplant. If time allows, patients should get their second dose of the available vaccines at least a couple of weeks prior to transplant “so that your body has a good immune response to the vaccine,” said Dr. Deepali Kumar, the American Society of Trans
plantation’s president-elect and an infectious disease physician.
Many major religious denominations have no objections to the COVID-19 vaccines. But the rollout has prompted heated debates because cell lines derived from fetal tissue have played a role, directly or indirectly, in the research and development of various vaccines and medicines.
The Vatican’s doctrine office has said it is “morally acceptable” for Catholics to receive COVID19 vaccines that are based on research that used cells derived from aborted fetuses. Pope Francis himself has said it would be “suicide” not to get the shot, and he has been fully vaccinated with the Pfizer formula.
To Lutali, a recruiter for tech companies, it seems like her hospital was so insistent on saving her from COVID-19 that it is willing to let her possibly die by blocking her transplant surgery.
Lutali, who does not belong to a denomination, said she does not live in fear of dying because of her belief in the afterlife. She is searching for another hospital, possibly in Texas or Florida, where she could get a transplant without being vaccinated.