By Victoria Moorwood – Cincinnati Enquirer
This story has been updated to include the family’s religious beliefs and a statement from the National Institutes of Health. Here’s the latest news on the controversy.
An Indiana family says Cincinnati Children’s won’t put their 12-year-old daughter on its heart transplant waiting list because of her vaccination status.
Janeen Deal, who is related by marriage to Vice President JD Vance’s half-siblings, said the hospital requires her daughter to receive COVID-19 and flu vaccinations, which Janeen and her husband are unwilling to do.
The couple adopted Adaline from China when she was 4 years old. Adaline was born with two heart conditions, Janeen said, and they adopted Adaline knowing she would one day need a heart transplant. Janeen said Adaline has been receiving treatment at Cincinnati Children’s for almost 10 years, and they hoped she would receive a heart transplant there because they consider it the best hospital in the area.
But earlier this month, Adaline’s doctor said she would need to have the two vaccinations to be put on the transplant list, according to Janeen. The couple told the doctor the vaccines conflict with their religious and medical beliefs, the family is nondenominational Christian, but the hospital would not honor a religious exemption.
“I thought, wow. So, it’s not about the kid. It’s not about saving her life,” Janeen told The Enquirer.
Vaccines are recommended for transplant recipients because those patients have a much higher risk for infections.
A Cincinnati Children’s spokesperson did not answer The Enquirer’s question about whether the hospital withheld Adaline from the transplant list.
Janeen believes the vaccines are unsafe, and also said they came to their decision after “the Holy Spirit put it on our hearts.” The couple is now considering taking Adaline to a different transplant center – one that won’t require her to be vaccinated. Contributions to the family’s Go Fund Me for Adaline’s surgery jumped from around $1,500 to over $50,000 this weekend after her story was spread on social media.
Does Cincinnati Children’s require vaccinations for transplants?
Cincinnati Children’s did not provide The Enquirer its transplant policy.
“At Cincinnati Children’s, clinical decisions are guided by science, research and best practices,” spokesperson Bo McMillan wrote in an email, relaying the hospital’s statement. “We tailor care plans to each patient in collaboration with their family to ensure the safest, most effective treatment.”
Transplant centers set their own requirements for vaccine requirements, said Andi Johnson, vice president of marketing and community engagement at Network for Hope, an organ procurement organization. Network for Hope works with transplant centers in southwest Ohio, Kentucky and parts of West Virginia and Indiana.
Janeen said Adaline’s doctor at Cincinnati Children’s said the hospital’s vaccine requirement follows guidelines from the National Institutes of Health. In an email to The Enquirer, a spokesperson for the agency said it does not make recommendations about vaccines for transplants.
There are two other transplant centers in Greater Cincinnati that perform heart transplants: Christ Hospital and UC Health.
What’s the risk for transplant recipients?
Patients are at higher risk for severe illness and death from infection after receiving a transplant, said Dr. Camille Kotton, the clinical director of transplant and immunocompromised host infectious diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital. That’s because they need long-term immunosuppressants so they don’t reject the new organ, making them more susceptible to infection.
“In the beginning of the pandemic, we had many transplant patients become deathly ill and we actually lost a number of our transplant patients to COVID-19, because they are more likely to have severe outcomes,” she said. “The first year after transplant is when they’re at highest risk for infection, but they do have a lifelong risk of severe disease and transplant patients are still dying because of COVID-19.”
Other factors besides vaccine status, like lifestyle or lack of social support, can also get patients deprioritized on a transplant waitlist.
Skepticism and conspiracy theories about COVID-19 and other vaccines sparked during the pandemic. In December, a Republican-led House subcommittee that investigated COVID-19 said the vaccine failed to stop the spread of the virus and blamed the erosion of public trust in vaccines on the government’s handling of the pandemic.
Janeen and her husband have 12 children, including eight who are adopted. She said she’s confident Adaline won’t have any problems with COVID-19 after her heart transplant.
“We’ll take it as we can if it happens,” she said. “But I know I cannot put this (vaccine) in her body knowing what we know and how we feel about it.”
Fight over vaccine requirement may spur new Ohio bill
In response to the Deal family’s fight, Ohio Rep. Jennifer Gross is seeking co-sponsors to introduce legislation that would prevent children from being refused medical care due to their vaccination status. Gross, whose district includes parts of Butler County, has shared posts on X criticizing the COVID-19 vaccine.
“I’m proud to be the sponsor of the Ohio bill that seeks to prevent discrimination against religious liberty. Stay tuned. #PrayForAdaline,” she posted Friday.
Gross did not respond to The Enquirer’s request for comment.
Janeen is working with Ohio Advocates for Medical Freedom, a group that lobbies for Ohioans’ rights to choose or refuse medical treatments, to support the bill.
“I’m so hopeful that this bill will save all the other children and adults so they don’t have to go through what Adaline’s had to go through,” she said. “It’s 2025. It’s time to move on from all this madness. (Getting vaccinated) should be your choice.”
