‘I was born free, I’ll die free’

[ROB]

‘I was born free, I’ll die free’: Man turns down vaccine at expense of a lifesaving transplant

San Francisco: For more than four years, Chad Carswell, 38, has suffered from severe kidney disease. In July 2020, he started on dialysis – but now his kidneys are functioning at just 4 per cent.

In an interview, Carswell said he recently applied for a kidney transplant but was turned down because he has not received a coronavirus vaccine. And, despite his hospital’s requirements that organ recipients be vaccinated against the virus, he’s refusing the shots.

Chad Carswell of North Carolina says he will not get the COVID-19 vaccine, despite being told he cannot get a lifesaving kidney transplant without it.
Chad Carswell of North Carolina says he will not get the COVID-19 vaccine, despite being told he cannot get a lifesaving kidney transplant without it.CREDIT:WSOC-TV

Carswell, of Hickory, North Carolina, acknowledged his condition is a “ticking time bomb,” and said he’s living every day as though it’s his last. Still, he will not take a coronavirus vaccine – even if that means losing out on a potentially lifesaving transplant.

“There is not a situation in this world that I’ll get a vaccine,” he told The Washington Post. “If I’m laying on my deathbed, and they tell me, ‘You have a kidney waiting on you if you get this shot,’ I’ll tell them, ‘I’ll see you on the other side.’”

Carswell is not the only unvaccinated person on a transplant wait list to be denied an organ. Last week, the family of D.J. Ferguson said a Massachusetts hospital denied him a heart transplant because he refused to take a coronavirus vaccine, the Associated Press reported. In October, a Colorado hospital said it would deny a kidney transplant to a woman unless she got vaccinated against the coronavirus.

Chad Carswell during a livestream from his hospital bed last year.
Chad Carswell during a livestream from his hospital bed last year.CREDIT:FACEBOOK

In both cases, the hospitals cited policies that require all transplant recipients to get vaccinated because of research that shows such patients are at a higher risk of dying from COVID-19. Studies estimate the mortality rate of transplant patients who contract COVID-19 at about 20 to 30 per cent, The Post reported.

Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, which recently drew criticism for denying Ferguson’s heart transplant over his vaccination status, said in a statement that there are more than 100,000 patients waiting for organs, and about half do not receive one in five years.

“Given the shortage of available organs, we do everything we can to ensure that a patient who receives a transplanted organ has the greatest chance of survival,” the hospital said. It also cited guidance from the American Society of Transplant Surgeons and other organisations that recommend patients receive coronavirus vaccines before undergoing transplants.

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Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist, the hospital where Carswell was hoping to receive his transplant, declined to comment on his case. In a statement to The Post, a spokeswoman said the hospital’s vaccine policy is meant to protect transplant patients, who are at high risk for severe illness from COVID-19.

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“[Our] policy follows the current standard of care in the United States, which is to vaccinate all patients on waiting lists or being evaluated for transplant,” the statement read, which added: “We understand that some patients may not wish to be vaccinated. In this case, patients can opt to be evaluated at another transplant centre.”

Carswell told The Post that he has had long history of health problems. After he was diagnosed with Type II diabetes, Carswell said he developed infections and other complications in his legs, both of which had to be amputated. He’s had COVID-19 twice, he said - once in November 2020 and again this past September, which landed him in the hospital for a short time.

For the last four and a half years, Carswell said, he’s battled stage-four kidney disease, and he went on dialysis in 2020 when his kidney function started to rapidly decline. For the last several months, Carswell said, he’s been looking for a new kidney and found numerous people willing to give him one.

It wasn’t until an appointment about three weeks ago, he said, that a doctor told him he needed a coronavirus vaccine to be eligible for a transplant. The doctor also told him his kidney donor would need to be vaccinated as well.

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That was a problem for Carswell, who said he does not want to be forced to get the shot. He added that he doesn’t believe in conspiracy theories about the vaccines, but remains sceptical about how they were developed.

Coronavirus vaccines have passed rigorous safety reviews and are effective in preventing serious illness and deaths. The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention recommends anyone over the age of 5 take a coronavirus vaccine.

But for Carswell, getting a shot comes down to personal choice, he said

“It’s about standing up for our rights and understanding that we have a choice,” he said.

Carswell said he knows that by refusing to get vaccinated, the donor kidney he so desperately needs will remain out of reach. But he said he is willing to accept the consequences, even it costs him his life.

“I was born free,” Carswell added. “I’ll die free.”

The Washington Post

[ROB]

Narrator: "He was never free."

[Kurt]

Basically the "tricking the victims into dying" part of human sacrifice.

One article I read on this guy was that after all the "Live Free = Die Free" shit he basically said he was still looking for a hospital that would toss away a perfectly good kidney so he could live for long enough, until COVID-19 got him.

[el3so]

With the amount and kind of drugs you are on after an organ transplant, this joker is upset about a vaccine? Too dumb to live, hope they can harvest some good bits from his corpse.

[Kurt]

With the amount and kind of drugs you are on after an organ transplant, this joker is upset about a vaccine? Too dumb to live, hope they can harvest some good bits from his corpse.

Without kidneys scrubbing everything I suspect he may not have any good bits.

[Kurt]

This guy died free as well

https://www.mediamatters.org/coronaviru ... died-covid

51 years old. Right Wing Hero. Dead.

If you want anti-vax heroes you gotta actually get them vaccinated so they do not die.

Like Sara Palin.

[Tarkan]

Basically the "tricking the victims into dying" part of human sacrifice.

One article I read on this guy was that after all the "Live Free = Die Free" shit he basically said he was still looking for a hospital that would toss away a perfectly good kidney so he could live for long enough, until COVID-19 got him.

So this guy's position is irrational.

I'm all for vaccine choice, but if I was high risk for dying from covid (I was a diabetic fat fuck or over 65), then I would get the vaccine.

If you are going to die if you don't get the vaccine, then get the fucking vaccine. Once you get a transplant, you are going to be immuno-suppressed for the rest of your life.

[Kurt]

Basically the "tricking the victims into dying" part of human sacrifice.

One article I read on this guy was that after all the "Live Free = Die Free" shit he basically said he was still looking for a hospital that would toss away a perfectly good kidney so he could live for long enough, until COVID-19 got him.

So this guy's position is irrational.

I'm all for vaccine choice, but if I was high risk for dying from covid (I was a diabetic fat fuck or over 65), then I would get the vaccine.

If you are going to die if you don't get the vaccine, then get the fucking vaccine. Once you get a transplant, you are going to be immuno-suppressed for the rest of your life.

The 51 year old guy croaked from it.

I am not on a flood plain but I have flood insurance. (and we had a flood in September...freak event) .

There is a political / Cultural part of the refusing the vaccine, which is what I think is the root cause of the North Carolina guy's choice in not getting the vaccine.

[snaark]

Pretty embarrassing if getting vaccinated is the hill you choose to die on.

I'm starting to wonder if all these people are just scared of needles.

[Kurt]

Pretty embarrassing if getting vaccinated is the hill you choose to die on.

I'm starting to wonder if all these people are just scared of needles.

That would actually make sense. I mean, if you are scared of something, however illogical, you avoid it. If avoidance interferes with your life you either suck it up or overcome it.

My dad has a snake phobia.
When he was a kid he had to take the cows out to pasture. That pasture walkway had some glacial rocks that made an awesome hibernaculum

So basically this:



So taking cows out to pasture in the spring and fall were often the stuff of his nightmares....but chores had to get done. He was afraid, he sucked it up. He then became a school teacher and moved to a less "snakey" environment.

Hating needles and vaccines as a kid, but putting up with it and then growing up and saying "screw that".....I get it.

But I think these guys have some almost spiritual calling to be dipshits.

And "Mandate" does not mean you are forced to get a jab, especially with every state having an employment under will law. It just means that people can kick you out of their stores and employers can fire you.

I say "Just" in that employers and business owners have the right to protect their businesses as they see fit, States and Municipalities have the right to pass a lot of oppressive laws like property taxes and lawn care ordinances as they see fit.

If my dad had been required to take high school history students out to pasture past a garter snake hibernaculum he would have done it in order to keep his job. Life sucks sometimes. It sucks more so during a plague. Its not like the vaccine refusers cannot suck up hardship either, so this is something different to them. I don't really get it.

[el3so]

After he was diagnosed with Type II diabetes, Carswell said he developed infections and other complications in his legs, both of which had to be amputated.

Guess that explains why he didn't go with "rather live on my feet, than die on my knees".

[Kurt]

After he was diagnosed with Type II diabetes, Carswell said he developed infections and other complications in his legs, both of which had to be amputated.

Guess that explains why he didn't go with "rather live on my feet, than die on my knees".

I'd rather die on that region than live on the same region with a different intent!