Vanderbilt University Medical Center Takes Woman Off Transplant List for Refusing COVID-19 Vaccine

Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) removed a 23-year-old woman from the transplant list, where she had been waiting more than three years on dialysis for a lifesaving kidney transplant, because she isn’t vaccinated against COVID-19.

Codie Samuelson was born with autosomal recessive polycystic kidney disease (ARPKD) and diagnosed at two months old with end-stage kidney failure. Samuelson’s father was the first to give her a kidney, but her body rejected it; it was the kidney from her mother that took, ultimately lasting her 18 years. Then, three and a half years ago, Samuelson’s body began rejecting that kidney. Samuelson has been on dialysis three times a week since then. Though she is considered high-risk for COVID-19, Samuelson decided not to get the vaccine based on the advice of three of her nurses and her own medical concerns.

In an interview with The Daily Wire, Samuelson and her mother, Christy, explained that the dialysis process has been going well but is very exhausting. Despite the taxing effect of the life-sustaining treatment, which takes around four or more hours, Samuelson manages some days to work as a DoorDash driver.

Christy says that they’re confident the setback is a part of God’s greater plan.

“I just say that everything is going to happen in God’s time – He’s going to be doing things the way He needs to in his time,” asserted Christy.

VUMC spokesman Craig Boerner confirmed that unvaccinated individuals may not be eligible for a transplant. He said that this requirement was just one of many for transplant patients. Boerner also indicated that an exemption process was in place for those with medical, religious, or personal objections to the vaccine.

“We are requiring COVID vaccination as an eligibility for adult solid organ transplant,” VUMC said last month in an official statement on the matter. “However, we do have an exemption process in place for medical or religious/strongly held personal beliefs.”

Yet, the Samuelson family told The Daily Wire that VUMC never offered them the exemption process as an option.

“If there’s a chance we have an exemption, we can apply for it. We’ve already spoken with the transplant surgeon and he was adamant that she [Codie] needed the vaccine,” explained Christy. “Who would be the one to approve [the exemption]? If it’s the surgeon we spoke with, we know that he was completely adamant about having the vaccination.”

The Daily Wire also asked VUMC what would occur if the donor

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