A North Carolina man awaiting a kidney transplant, says he is "willing to die" before getting a COVID-19 vaccine.
"They said the last thing we need talk about is your vaccination status," Chad Carswell told WRAL. "And that's when I politely told him there was nothing really to talk about. It wasn't up for debate that I wasn't getting it. And then he told me, you know you'll die if you don't get it. And I said I'm willing to die."
Carswell, a double amputee who has undergone major heart suergeies and is awaiting a kidney transplant at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem, says he was told he would need to be vaccinated before being treated. But the hospital says it is following the current standard policy in the United States, citing that a person of high risk of infection would need to have immunity to COVID-19 prior to transplant.
But Carswell says he has already COVID twice and that he is not willing to get a COVID-19 vaccine, even if it means not getting his transplant.