Colorado Springs woman denied kidney transplant because of COVID-19 vaccination status
KKTV | Oct. 6, 2021 at 1:08 AM EDTCOLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KKTV) - Leilani Lutali told 11 News she has end stage renal failure and needs a kidney as soon as possible. She said when she started working with UCHealth months ago, the fact that she was unvaccinated was not an issue.
“Fast forward a month and that policy had changed. So that was a surprise to me,” Lutali said.
She had found a donor candidate, Jaimee Fougner, who was willing to go through the tests. But after passing a few preliminary exams, Fougner was asked if she was vaccinated. She is not, and the process stopped.
UCHealth did not speak to 11 News on camera, but they did issue a statement outlining the risk they associate with a transplant recipient and the COVID-19 virus. They would not comment on any individual patients.
“Note that among the general population, for those who test positive for COVID-19, the mortality (death) rate is about 1.6%. It’s even less if you consider the people who are infected but who don’t get tested or who are asymptomatic,” UCHealth’s Vice President Communications Dan Weaver explained in an email to 11 News. “For transplant patients who contract COVID-19, the mortality rate ranges from about 20% to more than 30%.” . . .
https://www.kktv.com/2021/10/06/colorado-springs-woman-denied-kidney-transplant-because-vaccination-status/