Vance vows to help relative Adaline Deal, 12, denied heart transplant COVID vaccination
Vice President JD Vance is stepping in to help his 12-year-old relative who needs a heart transplant but was denied the lifesaving operation in Ohio because she’s not vaccinated against COVID-19 or the flu, according to a report.
Adaline Deal — who was born in China and adopted when she was four — was diagnosed at birth with two rare heart conditions, Ebstein’s anomaly and Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome.
Trump’s running mate told the Daily Mail he recently learned about Adaline Deal’s medical situation and is looking into ways to help out his family member.
“I guess it’s been circulating on social media, but I was made aware of a couple days ago, and we’re trying to dig in and trying to help, obviously, as much as possible,” Vance said, according to the publication.
“It is a distant relative, but somebody I care about. So we’re trying to figure out exactly what’s going on,” he added.
The preteen is related to Vance through her adoptive brother Jacob Deal, who is married to the vice president’s half-sister, Chelsea.
As she has gotten older her heart couldn’t sustain her larger body, which led to her being diagnosed with heart failure in January, her mother wrote on Facebook.
Jeneen Deal praised Vance’s commitment to helping her daughter and hoped the Trump administration could push Congress to pass a bill to protect unvaccinated Americans from discrimination in hospitals, according to the Daily Mail.
“That’s so awesome… like so hopeful that he knows about it, and that he’s aware of it,” she told the outlet.
Ebstein’s anomaly is a congenital defect in which the valve separating the top and bottom of the heart does not form correctly.
Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome creates an extra electrical pathway that causes a rapid heartbeat.
Since arriving in America, Adaline has received on-and-off treatment at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital for nearly a decade and the family had hoped the Ohio hospital would perform the transplant.
The family was told by the hospital’s doctors that Adaline wouldn’t be placed on the transplant waiting list unless she got vaccinated against COVID and the flu.
Cincinnati Children’s said it requires transplant patients to be vaccinated because they need to take anti-rejection immunosuppressant drugs for the rest of their lives — making them more vulnerable to
The family, who are nondenominational Christians, has no plans to give their daughter the vaccine as it goes against their religious beliefs, Jeneen Deal said.
“We’re just in a different way. [We] walked with the Lord. The Holy Spirit is on us. We weren’t like that – we didn’t have a relationship with the Lord like we do now, so it’s different,” Deal told the outlet/
Adaline was given several childhood vaccinations when she was in China, and she received several more during the adoption process but has not been vaccinated since.
One doctor on Adaline’s transplant team has signed off on the girl’s surgery despite her vaccination status, but several people make up the team and all members have to sign letters of approval, the Daily Mail reported.
Adaline was deemed stable during a recent check-up but her doctors always have concerns her condition can worsen.
The preteen, who has cognitive delays, knows her heart makes her sick but doesn’t understand the full scope of her illness.
“I’ve tried to explain it to her that ‘you’re going to get a new heart and you’ll feel better,’ Jeneen said. “I don’t know if she really knows what’s going on, but she just knows that her mom and dad love her and would do anything for her.”
Adaline’s transplant news made it to the ears of Congress and a bill was introduced on Valentine’s Day by Reps. Erin Houchin (R-IN) and Mike Rulli (R-OH).
The Deal family lives in Indiana and Vance served as the junior senator of Ohio until resigning to serve as vice president in January.
The bill, the COVID-19 Vaccination Non-Discrimination Act, would ensure American is refused a transplant over their personal or religious medical decisions.
“Denying a child a life-saving transplant over a COVID-19 vaccine is not science, it’s cruelty,” Houchin said. “Hospitals exist to save lives, not impose medical mandates on vulnerable patients. Families deserve the freedom to make the best medical decisions for their loved ones, without fear of being blacklisted from life-saving care. This bill will put an end to this unjust practice.”
