Unvaccinated Canadian woman denied organ transplant finds US hospital to perform surgery

An Alberta woman who was dropped from a high-priority organ transplant list for not receiving a COVID-19 vaccine has found a hospital in the United States willing to perform the surgery.

Sheila Annette Lewis was diagnosed with a terminal illness in 2018 and was told she would not survive without an organ transplant. She was placed on an organ waiting list in 2020, but was told in 2021 that a COVID-19 vaccine was needed to get the transplant.

Lewis had all of her childhood vaccinations updated in 2021, but decided not to get the COVID-19 vaccine because she was concerned about side effects. According to a Enter SendGo launched a fundraising campaign to help pay for Lewis’s surgery, she had tested positive for COVID-19 twice and had a COVID antibody test that showed she had “extremely high” levels of antibodies, but she still had to take the vaccine to receive the transplant in Canada.

With the help of her friends, Lewis has now found a hospital in the US where she does not need to be vaccinated for COVID-19 in order to receive a transplant. The testing is estimated to cost $100,000 and after Lewis finds a suitable transplant donor, the surgery is estimated to cost another $500,000.

More than $35,000 has been raised on the GiveSendGo platform for Lewis’s testing and operations to date.

Lawsuits

Arguing that the Canadian hospital’s transplant policy violated her charter rights, Lewis had previously taken her case to the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench and the Alberta Court of Appeal. But the courts ruled against her, claiming that the charter does not cover specific COVID-19 vaccination policies.

Lewis then took her case to the Supreme Court of Canada. On June 8, the Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF), representing Lewis, announced that the court had declined to hear her case. In addition, the court ruled that Lewis should pay costs incurred by Alberta Health Services (AHS) and the transplant doctors in the two trials that Lewis lost.

“Ms. Lewis is deeply disappointed that the Supreme Court of Canada has decided not to hear her case,” Allison Pejovic, legal counsel to Lewis, said in a statement. Edition. “She had hoped that justice would prevail in the courts for herself and other unvaccinated transplant candidates across Canada. Sadly, her constitutional challenge has ended today as the unscientific COVID-19 vaccine mandate continues with no end in sight.”

Lewis told the National Citizen’s Inquiry — which examined how the pandemic measures put in place by all levels of government affected Canadians — that the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear her case meant she was taken off the organ transplant list and “would never go back.” come’. ”

Lewis has filed a separate lawsuit against the AHS, unnamed transplant doctors and an Alberta hospital. Lewis is accusing them of medical malpractice and negligence and will ask the court to immediately reinstate her on the high priority transplant list.