Child With Unvaccinated Parents to Receive Transplant in Greece

A child from Cyprus who was refused a heart transplant in Germany because his parents are unvaccinated will have the procedure in Greece.

Due to be transported by air ambulance to Germany for the procedure, the three year old was taken off the transplantation list for a new heart because of the unvaccinated status of his parents.

He was then hospitalized in Nicosia’s Makarios Hospital with serious heart disease, after he was denied treatment in Germany because his parents were not vaccinated against the coronavirus.

Although they later agreed to become inoculated, six weeks would need to go by before they could be considered completely vaccinated.

The three-year old was flown to Greece Saturday afternoon in order to have the procedure at the pediatric clinic of the Mitera Hospital in Athens. Dr. Giorgos Sarris will conduct the operation.

According to Dr. Avraam Elia, the head of the Makarios hospital’s pediatrics clinic where the child was hospitalized, both of his parents have since received the first shot of a two-dose vaccine.

Child denied transplant due to unvaccinated parents

The boy was supposed to have been placed upon an air transport bound for a hospital in Germany that specializes in cardiology on Thursday morning.

But the family received late word that the child’s organ transplant will not take place on Thursday, with the German institution canceling the lifesaving procedure. Hospital officials insist that they cannot accept the patient if his parents are unvaccinated — even if he is accompanied on the trip by other people who are vaccinated.

According to reports in the Cyprus Mail, the German institution held firm to its policy that all children undergoing such procedures must be accompanied by their guardians in these cases.

Attempts were made to have the procedure done in other countries of the EU, and even Israel, but there again the child was refused because of the unvaccinated status of the parents, until Greece accepted the toddler for the transplant surgery.

Organ transplants leave immune system weak, Covid could result in death

Organs for transplants are famously scarce, and hospitals have strict rules regarding the health of a patient before they can be considered a candidate for a transplant. As the body is extremely susceptible to disease after the surgery, any risk of infection must be eliminated so that the patient can survive and their new organ can work properly.

In many cases, being vaccinated is a requirement for the lifesaving surgery.

The issue of personal rights vs. the ability to undergo lifesaving treatment is an extraordinarily thorny one. As Dr. Arthur Kaplan, who teaches medical ethics at the New York University Grossman School, tells reporters from Boston television station WBZ,, “Post any transplant, your immune system is basically shut off. The flu could kill you. A cold could kill you. Covid could kill you.

“Organs are scarce, Kaplan continued, adding “We’re not going to distribute them to someone who has a very poor chance of living, when others who are vaccinated have a much better chance post surgery of surviving.”