‘We’re being pressured to choose a shot that could kill him’: Wife of gravely ill anti-vax dad-of-two, 31, slams hospital for taking him off the heart transplant list because he’s unvaccinated
- Father-of-two DJ Ferguson, 31, has been taken off the donor list for a life-saving heart transplant because he hasn’t gotten vaccinated against COVID-19
- Boston Brigham and Women’s Hospital said their aim is to ‘create both the best chance for successful operation and the patient’s survival after transplantation’
- Being unvaccinated, along with other risk factors like being a cigarette smoker, can make patients ineligible for transplants
- His wife Heather Dawson said they are not backed into a ‘corner’ and are ‘being pressured to choose a shot that could kill him’ as his heart is already swollen
- The mRNA COVID-19 vaccines can give a patient temporary heart swelling
- But according to his father, Ferguson ‘doesn’t believe’ in the vaccine, and getting vaccinated is ‘against his principles’
A wife of a gravely ill father-of-two slammed a Boston hospital for taking her husband off the heart transplant list because he’s unvaccinated, stating they have been pushed into a ‘corner’ and ‘pressured’ to ‘choose a shot that could kill him.’
Heather Dawson, wife of DJ Ferguson, 31, who has a hereditary heart condition that causes his lungs and heart to fill with blood and fluid, has slammed the Boston Brigham and Women’s Hospital for denying a life-saving organ transplant to her husband because he is unvaccinated.
The hospital said it removed Ferguson from the donor list because all transplant recipients needed to be vaccinated in order to ‘create both the best chance for successful operation and also the patient’s survival after transplantation.’
Dawson said Ferguson was already ‘high risk’ for the vaccine due to his swollen heart. The mRNA vaccines have been found to cause temporary swelling of the heart and are typically seen in ‘male adolescents and young adults,’ according to the American Lung Association.
‘He is at extremely high risk of sudden death if it does,’ she wrote, of fears his heart could swell. ‘We are literally in a corner right now. This is extremely time sensitive.
‘We’re being pressured to choose a shot that could kill him.
‘This is not just a political issue. People need to have a choice!’ she said.
DJ Ferguson, 31 (pictured) has a hereditary heart condition that causes his lungs and heart to fill with blood and fluid without intervention from intravenous medication. He has been denied a life-saving heart transplant because he refuses to get vaccinated against COVID-19
Ferguson (right) is pictured with his wife, Heather Dawson, and their two children. His wife is now saying that the vaccine could cause more heart swelling and could cause his death and that the hospital has put them in a ‘corner’ to ‘pressure’ them to ‘choose a shot that could kill him’
Ferguson’s family is considering moving him to another hospital, but he may not be able to be moved in his condition
‘After almost 50 days in the hospital with no answers, DJ was finally seen by some of the best cardiac specialists last week,’ Dawson updated on GoFundMe.
‘After running countless tests and scans we learned that DJ is now in severe end stage heart failure, meaning that he is going to need a heart transplant to live.
‘On top of the heart failure his heart is extremely swollen and dilated. Which puts him at high risk of cardiac arrest,’ she said. ‘The bad news is that the transplant board will not actively list him due to his vaccination status.’
Factors that can disqualify patients from organ transplants
- Not being vaccinated for COVID
- Untreated psychological disorders, like schizophrenia, that could prevent the patient from properly caring for themselves after the transplant
- A high risk of abusing alcohol after the transplant
- Active cigarette smoking within six months of the prospective transplant
- Substance abuse
- Obesity
- Severe local or systemic infection
- Cancer in the last 5 years except localized skin (not melanoma) or stage I breast or prostate
- HIV/AIDS
- Age appropriateness (for example, heart transplant recipients should not be more than 70 years of age, according to John Hopkins University guidelines)
- Inability to make a strong commitment to transplantation
- Insulin-requiring diabetes mellitus with end-organ damage
- Irreversible renal failure
- Acute pulmonary thromboembolism
- Inability to pay for transplant or post-operative care
However, Ferguson’s father, David, said earlier that getting vaccinated is ‘kind of against his basic principles’ and that his son ‘doesn’t believe in it.’
‘I think my boy is fighting pretty damn courageously and he has integrity and principles he really believes in and that makes me respect him all the more…It’s his body. It’s his choice.’
The hospital, which has a list of protocols for transplant candidates that includes a ban on lifestyle choices like smoking and alcohol, said requiring the COVID-19 vaccine is common at many medical center’s throughout the country.
The mortality rate for transplant recipients who fall ill with COVID is more than 20 percent, according to UCHealth.
‘It’s a policy they are enforcing and so because he won’t get the shot, they took him off the list of a heart transplant,’ David told CBS Boston.
‘My son has gone to the edge of death to stick to his guns and he’s been pushed to the limit.’
Ferguson’s family is considering transferring him to another hospital, but his wife said that he may be too weak to move.
‘At this point DJ is unable to leave the hospital until he gets the heart surgery he needs. Without the surgery his lungs and heart will continue to fill up with blood and fluid (on top of everything else that’s going on),’ said Ferguson’s wife, on Facebook.
Dr. Arthur Caplan, the head of Medical Ethics at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, told CBS Boston that vaccination is a requirement for transplants because, after receiving a new organ, patients’ immune systems are essentially switched off.
‘The flu could kill you, a cold could kill you, COVID could kill you. The organs are scarce, we are not going to distribute them to someone who has a poor chance of living when others who are vaccinated have a better chance post-surgery of surviving,’ he explained.
Ferguson isn’t the first patient in need of a transplant who has been denied due to their vaccination status.
In October, Leilani Lutali of Colorado, 56, was taken off the transplant list at a University of Colorado Health hospital because she and her prospective kidney donor Jaimee Fougner, 45, hadn’t gotten the COVID-19 vaccine.
‘It’s a policy they are enforcing and so because he won’t get the shot, they took him off the list of a heart transplant,’ Ferguson’s father David told CBS Boston
The pair were placed on a list for those who are ‘non-compliant by not receiving the COVID-19 vaccine.’
Born-again Christian Lutali has refused to get inoculated because of the use of stem cells in developing some vaccines.
Boston Brigham and Women’s Hospital (pictured) removed Ferguson from its donor list because has not gotten the COVID-19 vaccine and said in a statement that their aim is to ‘create both the best chance for successful operation and also the patient’s survival after transplantation’
‘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,’ Lutali said.
Fougner, Lutali’s friend and potential donor, has also denied the vaccine citing religious reasons.
Cells taken from elective abortions have been used to develop effective vaccines since the 1960s including current vaccines for rubella, chickenpox, hepatitis A, and shingles.
None of the COVID-19 vaccines contain aborted fetal cells, like some social media users have been falsely claiming. But they did utilize fetal cell lines in their development.
Ohio man Mike Ganin, who is vaccinated against COVID, was denied a kidney transplant last October because his donor hadn’t received her shot.
‘I don’t want to get the vaccine. I’ve got reasons — medical, religious, and also freedom,’ the donor, Sue George, told WKYC.
In October, Leilani Lutali of Colorado, 56 (pictured), was taken off the transplant list at a University of Colorado Health hospital because she and her prospective kidney donor hadn’t gotten the COVID-19 vaccine
UCHealth, which operates hospitals and urgent care facilities throughout Colorado, said that the COVID-19 vaccine was one of several measures patients needed to take to give the organ the best chance of not being rejected.
‘An organ transplant is a unique surgery that leads to a lifetime of specialized management to ensure an organ is not rejected, which can lead to serious complications, the need for a subsequent transplant surgery, or even death,’ UCHealth told The Post at the time.
‘Physicians must consider the short and long-term health risks for patients as they consider whether to recommend an organ transplant.’
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