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Query: Experience with patient/surrogate refusal of blood from COVID-vaccinated donors?

  • 1.  Query: Experience with patient/surrogate refusal of blood from COVID-vaccinated donors?

    Posted 01-12-2023 10:33
    Greetings All,
    In the past 9 months, we have had 3 families in our Pediatric Cardiac ICU object to blood from COVID-vaccinated donors for their children about to undergo cardiac surgery. We are writing up a case report and ethical analysis and I am curious if other institutions have experienced similar requests (for any type of patient, not solely peds CICU). It would be interesting in our case report to note whether this is a local or national phenomenon. Additionally, if you have had this experience, I'm wondering if you have established any protocol for institutional response. We are proposing response recommendations, but curious if others have something already established. We utilize the Harm Principle to argue for overriding surrogates in life-threatening situations (similar to Jehovah's Witness). We also argue that the blood supply should remain anonymous, that directed donation is not feasible and will lead to justice issues, and the use of non-standard suppliers designed to create a bank of unvaccinated donors is pragmatically challenging and could threaten the standard suppliers. Curious if others have any personal experience with these new requests.
    Thanks for considering,

    Mithya Lewis-Newby MD MPH
    Pediatric Cardiac ICU, Bioethics and Palliative Care
    Chair, Hospital Ethics Committee
    Seattle Children's Hospital, University of Washington

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    Mithya Lewis-Newby
    Pediatric Cardiac Critical Care Attending
    Seattle Children's Hospital and University of Washington
    Seattle WA
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