Adaline Deal, a 12-year-old girl from Indiana, has been denied a place on a heart transplant list due to her unvaccinated status against COVID-19 and the flu, as per her parents’ account. Adaline, who is distantly related to Vice President JD Vance through marriage, was born with two rare heart conditions that her family knew would eventually necessitate a transplant, according to her mother, Janeen Deal.
Adaline was adopted from China at the age of four and has been receiving treatment at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital for nearly a decade. Her parents had hoped that she would receive her heart transplant at the same hospital. However, the hospital’s policy requires transplant patients to be vaccinated, a rule they declined to waive even when the family cited their religious beliefs as nondenominational Christians.
Janeen Deal expressed her disappointment with the hospital’s decision, stating that she felt the focus had shifted from saving her daughter’s life. The mother, who holds the belief that vaccines are unsafe, said that she and her husband decided against vaccinating Adaline against COVID-19 or the flu, attributing their decision to a spiritual conviction.
Medical professionals recommend vaccinations against preventable diseases for transplant recipients due to their increased vulnerability to infections. Dr. Camille Kotton, the clinical director of transplant and immunocompromised host infectious diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital, explained that patients with severe illnesses like Adaline’s are at a higher risk of death if infected with COVID-19 compared to other patients.
Despite this, Janeen remains confident that her family, which includes 11 other children, would not encounter any issues with COVID-19 post-transplant. She stated that she could not administer the vaccine to her daughter given her beliefs about its safety.
While a spokesperson for Cincinnati Children’s Hospital declined to confirm Adaline’s exclusion from the transplant list, they stated that the hospital’s clinical decisions are guided by scientific research and best practices, following guidelines from the National Institutes of Health.
Adaline’s parents are now seeking a different transplant center that does not require vaccination. A GoFundMe campaign for the transplant has raised over $50,000 as of Wednesday morning.