Unvaccinated mother of five receives double lung transplant in Montreal after contracting COVID-19
CTV
Three COVID-19 patients who were unvaccinated or partially vaccinated have received double lung transplants at a Montreal hospital after their lungs were irreversibly damaged by the disease. One patient was a 49-year-old mother of five.
The details of the story, first reported by La Presse and confirmed to CTV News by a hospital spokesperson, prompted thorny debates among staff, with some health-care workers questioning the ethics around such a decision.
Dr. Charles Poirier, the medical director of the lung transplant program at the University of Montreal Hospital Centre (CHUM) explained that refusing someone a transplant is still considered to be quite drastic.
“The death penalty doesn’t exist in Canada. They didn’t kill anyone. They just didn’t take the vaccine. They still have access to [care],” Poirier told the French-language news outlet. Poirier was not available for an interview with CTV News on Wednesday.
The patients were eligible to get the vaccine but did not get the full complement of shots. That wasn’t because they were anti-vaccine, said Poirier.
