A 9-year-old boy is being denied a life-saving kidney transplant because his father is not vaccinated against COVID-19.
Dane Donaldson was found to be a perfect match for his son Tanner back in early 2018 by the Cleveland Clinic Children’s Hospital. The family decided to wait a little longer before having Tanner undergo the transplant since transplanted kidneys from a live donor only lasted about 20 years.
That’s when COVID-19 hit and put a freeze on the procedure.
But now the hospital is refusing to perform the life-saving father-to-son kidney transplant it agreed to do nearly four years ago over the senior Donaldson’s unvaccinated status.
Tanner’s a third grader. Personality-wise, he’s like every other kid, very happy. Just a fun kid all the way around, plays basketball. He’s now into lacrosse. At this age, there’s not a lot of contact. So he’s good there,” said Donaldson. “Medically, a little bit different than most children. He was born with a birth defect called posterior urethral valves. It’s a valve that blocks urine from exiting the body.”