UW Medicine adds COVID vaccine to list required for a transplant

Some patients who need an organ transplant are being removed from the waitlist if they don't get vaccinated for COVID-19.

A Colorado Springs woman is waiting for a transplant.

She has a donor lined up, but neither are vaccinated.

They say they don't want the vaccine for religious reasons.

The pair got a letter from UCHealth saying they have 30 days to get the shot or they'd be removed from the transplant list.

The hospital says transplant patients infected with COVID are at high risk of severe illness, hospitalization and death - with a mortality risk as high as 32%.

Here in Seattle, University of Washington Medicine has a similar policy.

The website says heart, kidney, liver and lung transplant patients must be fully vaccinated prior to the procedure unless they have a medical exception.

The hospital says vaccine requirements aren't new. It's previously required transplant patients to be current on all critical vaccines prior to a procedure, and the list now includes COVID-19.

It says those who refuse the vaccine for non-medical reasons will be removed from the waitlist and deemed ineligible.