Hospital responds to claim Vance's young relative was denied heart transplant over vaccination status

Cincinnati Children's Hospital issued a statement Wednesday following backlash over the claim it denied a 12-year-old relative of Vice President JD Vance a spot on its heart transplant waiting list over her vaccination status.

The hospital, which alternatively has no qualms subjecting kids to dangerous sex-change drugs and mutilations, suggested that its vaccine requirement is informed by its responsibility "to ensure that every donated organ is used in a way that maximizes successful outcomes for children in need."

Adaline Deal, whose mother is related to the vice president's half-siblings through marriage, suffers from two heart conditions, Ebstein's anomaly and Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome. The Cincinnati Enquirer reported that after nearly a decade receiving treatment from the Cincinnati hospital, the girl was informed on Jan. 17 that her heart was failing, functioning at just 42%.

While Deal's heart cannot be fixed, it can be replaced.

'You're just going to let my child die?'

Jeneen Deal, the girl's mother, told WKRC-TV that doctors at the hospital "taught us about the different testing that they need to do and then the vaccinations that they need to do."

The Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, which oversees the organ transplant list, does not issue policies requiring transplant centers to use specific criteria when determining the suitability of a given candidate for transplantation. Transplant hospitals can, however, establish their own policies.

In the case of Cincinnati Children's, candidates must have flu and COVID-19 vaccinations — vaccinations Deal's parents decided not to get her on the basis of religious and medical beliefs.

"I'm like, so if we don't do the vaccinations, you're just going to let my child die?" recalled Jeneen Deal. "And she's like, 'I am so sorry.' She goes, 'This is just our policy.'"

"We approach every transplant evaluation with a focus on long-term success, guided by medical science and an unwavering commitment to patient safety," the hospital noted in its Wednesday statement, which made no explicit reference to the Deal family. "Because children who receive a transplant will be immunosuppressed for the rest of their life, vaccines play a critical role in preventing or reducing the risk of life-threatening infections, especially in the first year."

The family is now reportedly considering taking Adaline to a transplant center in Pittsburgh in hopes of making the list without having to compromise on their beliefs.

A spokesperson for the vice president did not respond to Blaze News' request for comment.

Vance's relative is not the first American to be rejected as a patient for a lifesaving transplant due to vaccination status.

In 2022, DJ Ferguson, a father in his thirties, was removed from the heart transplant list at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston because he refused the COVID-19 vaccine, which has ironically been linked to risks of heart damage. His mother told NPR that Ferguson was not against vaccinations but was wary about the COVID-19 vaccine because he was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation.

"He wants to be assured by his doctors that his condition would not be worse or fatal with this COVID vaccine," said Tracy Ferguson.

Michelle Vitullo of Ohio was in desperate need of a liver transplant, then discovered her daughter was an exact match. Vitullo, suffering from advanced cancer, reportedly underwent multiple treatments to stabilize her health with the goal of undergoing the surgery in September 2021. The Cleveland Clinic canceled the procedure at the last minute, citing its COVID-19 vaccination requirement.

That same year, the University of Colorado's hospital kicked Leilani Lutali of Colorado Springs off its active transplant list for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine. Lutali had a donor lined up who was similarly unvaccinated.

"The shot's relatively new, and as a consumer, I'm not an early adopter," Lutali told KDVR-TV. "I wait and see what's going on. I feel like I'm being coerced into not being able to wait and see and that I have to take the shot if I want this life-saving transplant."

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