A North Carolina man is refusing to get vaccinated for Covid, even to make himself eligible for a life-saving kidney transplant.

Chad Carswell, a double amputee who has undergone major heart surgeries in the past, has kidneys that are only functioning at 4 percent, and he is currently undergoing dialysis three times a week while he seeks out a transplant. Carswell was undergoing scans and tests at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Hospital in hopes of receiving a new transplant, but the hospital refuses to conduct the surgery unless he and his kidney donor are both vaccinated, and Carswell refuses to get the shot.

“I was born free. I will die free,” Carswell told WSOC. “I’m not changing my mind. I’ve had conversations with my family and everybody that’s close to me. They know where I stand, and it’ll not be a situation that occurs that I will choose to change my mind on this topic.”

Carswell told reporters friends and local businesses raised money for the transplant, and that more than 100 people have offered to donate a kidney to him. He said his vaccination status came up during conversations with the hospital, and when informed of their policy requiring vaccines for transplants, Carswell said he still wouldn’t get it.

“‘You know you’ll die, if you don’t get it’” Carswell recalled from the hospital staff. “And I said, ‘I’m willing to die.’”

A spokesperson for the Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Hospital gave a statement to the Washington Post explaining their policy is in accordance with health standards around the country. It also emphasizes transplant patients face a high risk of severe illness from Covid if they aren’t vaccinated beforehand.

“[Our] policy follows the current standard of care in the United States, which is to vaccinate all patients on waiting lists or being evaluated for transplant,” the statement said. “We understand that some patients may not wish to be vaccinated. In this case, patients can opt to be evaluated at another transplant center.”

Carswell’s case comes after D.J. Ferguson, an unvaccinated father of two in Massachusetts, was denied a heart transplant at Brigham and Women’s Hospital because he refuses to be vaccinated. Ferguson’s family recently appeared on Tucker Carlson’s show to talk about his ordeal, which the Fox News host decried as a “moral tragedy” instead of suggesting that Ferguson get vaccinated.

Like Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital has acknowledged in their guidelines that transplant patients have a higher risk of dying from Covid without getting vaccinated before the surgery. Furthermore, the hospital and other medical ethicists have noted the supply and demand for organs, making the point that transplants are scarce and should be used on patients with the greatest possible chance of post-surgery survival.

Watch above, via WSOCTV9.

The post ‘I Will Die Free’: Man in Need of Kidney Transplant Tells Reporters He Won’t Take the Vaccine to Save His Life first appeared on Mediaite.

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