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No Jab? No Life Saving Lung Transplant, Canadian Hospital Tells Woman

Neil Campbell
Neil lives in Canada and writes about society and politics.
Published: September 4, 2021
University of Alberta signage in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. 56-year-old Annette Lewis, who suffers from terminal idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in both lungs was advised by her doctor at the UofA that although she is second in line on a lung transplant donor list she has sat on for 2.5 years, she will be denied medical care unless she accepts a COVID-19 vaccine.
University of Alberta signage in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. 56-year-old Annette Lewis, who suffers from terminal idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in both lungs was advised by her doctor at the UofA that although she is second in line on a lung transplant donor list she has sat on for 2.5 years, she will be denied medical care unless she accepts a COVID-19 vaccine. (Image: Jeffrey Beall via Flickr CC-BY-SA 2.0)

A Canadian woman who needs a lung transplant in order to survive has been told by a university hospital handling her case that if she does not accept a vaccine for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), she will be removed from the donor list and will be left to her own devices. 

The 56-year-old woman, Annette Lewis, suffers from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in both her lungs and has sat on the transplant wait list for two-and-a-half-years. Lewis was told by her doctor at the University of Alberta in Edmonton that all pre-transplant patients are required to accept an injection, and that if she does not, she will be removed from the donor list.

Lewis’s lung capacity was at only 40 percent two months ago. She was advised by the University that she is presently second in line for a transplant.

The report comes from the Justice Center for Constitutional Freedom (JCCF), who uploaded an audio recording of Lewis’s conversation with her doctor on Sept. 3. In the recording, Lewis’s oxygen machine can be heard in the background.

In the call, the doctor, while encouraging vaccine acceptance, did not shy away from the fact that if Lewis is denied the lung transplant because of rejecting vaccination, she will die.

According to the JCCF, Lewis has already complied with a requirement to accept a second dose of various vaccinations for diseases she had already received in her childhood. Lewis said she does not want the COVID-19 injections because they are both experimental and novel forms of vaccines and have an increasingly staggering history of adverse reactions, including permanent disability and death

JCCF wrote to the Lung Transplant Team at the University of Alberta and said, “Your team’s conduct in giving Ms. Lewis an ultimatum of this nature is coercive and unethical. Threatening a patient’s access to life-saving medical treatment if she does not accede to your demand that she participates in an experimental treatment that is known to potentially cause serious side effects, including permanent disability and death, is disturbing.”

“If Ms. Lewis is removed from the transplant list she will die. This is a gross violation of her freedom of choice. Having to choose between taking an experimental vaccine that she does not want, or certain death, is not a choice,” said the organization’s lawyer.

JCCF has demanded the University reply within seven days confirming Lewis will not be denied health care unless she takes the injections. 

‘A crisis of the unvaccinated’

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney of the United Conservative Party returned to formal public appearances after a three week absence on Sept. 3 to announce the return of mandatory indoor mask mandates to the Province. In a press conference, Kenney made the decision to paint the Province’s unvaccinated as the cause of Alberta’s rise in positive PCR tests.

“The bottom line is this, four out of five Alberta adults have protected themselves and helped reduce transmission by getting vaccinated. But, one out of five Alberta adults have not and their choices are now jeopardizing our health-care system,” said Kenney. 

“I’m going to be blunt: If you are unvaccinated it is urgent that you protect yourselves, our hospitals and our entire community.” 

Kenney called the vaccines a “miracle of modern medicine” and declared current statistics a “crisis of the unvaccinated,” claiming that 80 percent of hospital admissions since July 1 and that 91 percent of ICU patients are unvaccinated.

On Sept. 1, Kenney said during a Facebook Live event in response to a question about a new wave of lockdowns, “[More] lockdowns? No. I think the trick is to get more people vaccinated. That is the alternative to lockdowns.”

Kenney alluded to vaccine passports, “We may have to take other measures to encourage people, the unvaccinated, to ensure they are not putting themselves in a position where they’re transmitting.”

On Sept. 2, Rachel Notley, leader of Alberta’s far-left New Democrat Party (NDP) and previous Premier of Alberta said bluntly that whether Kenney likes it or not, vaccine passports will be installed in Alberta, “Vaccine verification is coming to Alberta whether Jason Kenney likes it or not…The UCP must follow other provinces and step up.”

In July, Kenney put his foot down against vaccine passports, saying they would not be installed in Alberta, “We’ve been very clear from the beginning that we will not facilitate or accept vaccine passports…I believe they would in principle contravene the Health Information Act and also possibly the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.”

The Alberta Premier’s position was the same as that of Ontario Premier Doug Ford, also a Conservative, who walked back his position on Sept. 1 when Ontario became the third Province in Canada to install vaccine status apartheid.

In early August, Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath made public comments saying she believed vaccination should not be mandatory when she said, “I don’t take lightly people’s Charter rights…We can’t simply ignore that there are folks that are not going to get vaccinated and I don’t think that the right thing to do is just to shut them out,” in reference to vaccine passports

Horwath walked back her comments only one day later after facing pressure from the federal NDP, issuing a statement which said, “I fully support mandatory vaccination in health care and education, based on science and public health priorities. I should have made that position clearer, much earlier, in support of the health and safety of the most vulnerable among us: seniors, people with disabilities, people who are sick, and children who can’t yet get their vaccines.”

At the end of May, Kenney’s administration ordered four Alberta universities, including the University of Alberta, to suspend partnerships with individuals and organizations with ties to the Chinese Communist Party after reports revealed the UofA had an extensive and long-term relationship with the Party, including researchers who had formed joint ventures funded by the regime’s state-run enterprises.