The parents of a 12-year-old girl with two heart conditions are fighting a Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center policy that requires patients to be vaccinated against the flu and COVID-19 before they can join the organ transplant list.
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital had been treating Adaline Deal for nearly a decade. Last month, doctors confirmed the girl was in heart failure. According to The Independent, the girl has Ebstein’s anomaly and Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome, meaning she requires a transplant.
However, because she hasn’t been vaccinated, she is not eligible for the transplant. The hospital denied a religious exemption from the vaccination mandate.
“The heart failure team told me they won’t put her on the list unless we give her the Covid shot and the flu shot. I was like [you] would let her die if I refuse,” Jeneen Deal, Adaline’s mother, said in a January Facebook post, per The Independent. “That’s their policy she said. How nuts is that!”
“I’m like, so if we don’t do the vaccinations, you’re just going to let my child die?” the mother said, according to WKRC-TV. “And she’s like, ‘I am so sorry.’ She goes, ‘This is just our policy.’”
Jeneen Deal, a mother of 12 from Indiana, adopted Adaline from China as a four-year-old. The mother is related to the half-siblings of Vice President J.D. Vance via marriage. According to reports, Adaline’s parents are considering taking their daughter to a Pittsburgh hospital that doesn’t require vaccinations.
“I can’t think of anything more horrible than denying a child a heart transplant or a kidney because of their vaccination status,” Fox News Channel said Stephanie Stock, president of Ohio Advocates for Medical Freedom.
According to reports, the Cincinnati hospital is standing by its policy, and doctors typically recommend transplant parents be vaccinated as they are more susceptible to infections.
“Our responsibility is to ensure that every donated organ is used in a way that maximizes successful outcomes for children in need,” the hospital said in a statement, according to Cincinnati.com.
“Because children who receive a transplant will be immunosuppressed for the rest of their life, vaccines play a critical role in preventing or reducing the risk of life-threatening infections, especially in the first year,” the statement continued. “These decisions involve discussion between our providers and the patient’s family.”
Ohio Reps. Jennifer Gross, R-West Chester, and Beth Lear, R-Galena, introduced the Conscientious Right to Refuse Act. The measure, which has 27 co-sponsors, makes it illegal in Ohio to deny care to people who have not been vaccinated.
“In this version, we have included a provision to protect children from being refused medical care or a transplant because their parents object to vaccination for conscientious or religious reasons,” Gross said in a post to X.
“We have also included the right to conscientious objection to facial coverings (not related to surgical procedures) & the objection to accepting a medical device used to track or store health or financial information,” Gross added. “We believe the right of conscience must be protected with regard to medical interventions. We are standing with the people of Ohio to fight for your medical liberty!”
The family isn’t changing their position.
“She knows her heart is really sick because she doesn’t feel good, and she doesn’t want to go to school or do basic things like taking a shower or play on her iPod,” the elder Deal said, per Fox News Channel. “…She knows mom is crying a lot, and she’ll say, ‘It’s OK, Mom,’ and pat me on the back.”
“I tell her, God’s going to get us through this,” Deal added. “It’s just such a process. I never dreamed it would be this difficult, especially with a religious exemption.”
