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JD Vance's 12-year-old relative denied heart transplant over COVID vaccine status
Adaline Deal was born with two rare heart conditions. Her family claims she was denied a heart transplant because she is not vaccinated against COVID-19.
Adaline Deal, a 12-year-old girl from Indiana and a distant relative of Vice President JD Vance, has reportedly been denied a heart transplant because she is not vaccinated against COVID-19 and the flu. Her parents said Adaline was born with two rare heart conditions—Ebstein’s anomaly and Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome. She has received treatment at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital for nearly a decade with the hope of eventually receiving a heart transplant there. However, the hospital has refused to place her on the transplant list, as it requires all transplant patients to be vaccinated.
Her mother, Janeen Deal, told The Cincinnati Enquirer that the hospital insisted on vaccination, despite the family’s objections based on their religious beliefs as nondenominational Christians.
“I thought, wow. So, it’s not about the kid. It’s not about saving her life,” Janeen told the newspaper.
The family decided not to vaccinate Adaline against COVID-19 or the flu after “the Holy Spirit put it on our hearts.”
GoFundMe Campaign Launched
A GoFundMe campaign launched for Adaline’s transplant has raised over $50,000 as of Wednesday morning. The page shares that Adaline was adopted from China.
“She was born with Ebstein's anomaly and Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome. Both are heart conditions. When we were in the process of adopting her, the adoption agency told us we needed to pick another child because her heart was so bad she wasn’t going to make it. We continued to support Adaline so she could stay in a foster home, but shortly after we arrived home with our other adopted child, the agency stopped taking the funds out of our account. So, we thought she had passed away,” the page reads.
“We started the process a second time to adopt from China, and we saw her little face pop up on the children needing to be adopted. So, we knew it was time to bring her home. She has excelled despite her sick heart. Since we have brought her home, she’s been in and out of the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. She has grown so much that now her heart can’t sustain her. She is now to the point where she will be needing a heart transplant. So, we are seeking funds for the heart transplant process.”
Do Transplant Recipients Require Vaccination?
Dr. Camille Kotton, clinical director of transplant and immunocompromised host infectious diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital, explained to The Cincinnati Enquirer that patients with severe illnesses are at a significantly higher risk of death from infections like COVID-19.
“The first year after transplant is when they’re at highest risk for infection, but they do have a lifelong risk of severe disease and transplant patients are still dying because of COVID-19," Kotton told the newspaper.
