US news: Vice President Vance’s 12-year-old relative ‘denied’ heart transplant for not being Covid vaccinated

A 12-year-old girl from Indiana, Adaline Deal, who is related to Vice President JD Vance by marriage through his half-siblings, has been denied a spot on the heart transplant list due to her not being vaccinated against COVID-19 and the flu, according to a report by New York Post, citing her parents.

What did the hospital say?

The report mentioned that Adaline, who was born with two rare heart conditions, has been under medical care at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital for nearly a decade, and her family had hoped she would receive a transplant there.

Her mother, Janeen Deal, told The Cincinnati Enquirer that they were aware from the beginning that Adaline would eventually need a transplant.

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The report mentioned that Adaline was adopted from China when she was 4 years old.

“But the hospital requires transplant patients to be vaccinated, and declined to make an exemption even when told it goes against the family’s religious beliefs as nondenominational Christians,” the parents said.

Why vaccinations are important?

Vaccinations against preventable diseases are important for transplant recipients, as they are significantly more vulnerable to infections.

For patients with severe conditions like Adaline, who has Ebstein’s anomaly and Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome, the risk of death from a COVID infection is much higher than in other patients, according to Dr. Camille Kotton, the clinical director of transplant and immunocompromised host infectious diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital.

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According to the report, Janeen Deal believes that vaccines are unsafe, and the decision to not vaccinate their daughter Adaline was made after “the Holy Spirit put it on our hearts.”

In light of being denied a place on the heart transplant list, Adaline’s parents are now looking to transfer her to a different transplant centre that “won’t require her to be vaccinated”, the report mentioned.

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Following the spread of their story on social media, contributions to the family's GoFundMe campaign surged from approximately $1,500 to $50,000.