A mother-of-two has died three years after being denied a lifesaving heart transplant by a Melbourne hospital because she would not get vaccinated against Covid-19.
Vrejouhi “Vicki” Derderian, 49, suffered severe heart failure in 2020 and had a Ventricular Assist Device surgically implanted, but The Alfred Hospital then deemed her ineligible to be placed on the donor waiting list due to Victoria’s Covid vaccine mandates.
In 2023 she spoke out against the hospital’s decision, which she called a “no jab, no heart” policy, saying she had a legal vaccine exemption and was concerned about heart-related health conditions like myocarditis and pericarditis linked to the mRNA vaccines.
Ms Derderian died on February 23, according to a funeral notice informing her loved ones of her memorial service, which will be held on Friday at St Mary’s Armenian Apostolic Church in Surrey Hills.
A post on Facebook page Heart 4 Vicki, which was set up to support Ms Derderian during the pandemic, claimed she recently travelled overseas for a heart transplant, and survived the operation.
“Vicki’s recovery was slow and steady, with a few minor issues that were successfully managed – the heart and all her organs were functioning well. Fourteen days after the operation, she unexpectedly developed bleeding on the brain,” the post stated.
“Despite every effort by her medical team, they were unable to stop it. Doctors believe it may have been linked to the long-term use of blood thinners.”
Ms Derderian challenged Alfred Health’s decision at a tribunal in May 2023, alleging ideological discrimination, and told news.com.au she felt like keeping her off the waiting list was a “form of punishment” for not getting vaccinated.
“They’re set in their ways – basically it’s ‘no jab, no heart’. There is no long-term study on the efficacy of vaccines on pre- and post-transplant patients. I have a legal exemption from ATAGI which they are refusing to acknowledge,” she said.
Alfred Health said at the time vaccine guidance was set through the Transplantation Society of Australia and New Zealand (TSANZ) and the Australian Immunisation Handbook, and the TSANZ listed “noncompliance with recommended pre-transplantation vaccinations” under “exclusion criteria”.
A spokesperson said there were a range of medical factors determining whether a patient could be placed on a transplant waiting list, and said adherence to vaccination schedules was just “one consideration”.
Earlier in 2023 Ms Derderian appeared on the Today show where she told Karl Stefanovic she was “not an anti-vaxxer” but “wanted to minimise risk as much as possible” and thought patients “shouldn’t be coerced into taking something they don’t believe in to get lifesaving treatment”.
Former deputy chief medical officer Dr Nick Coatsworth then told Ms Derderian that from a transplant physician’s point of view “the biggest risk to you will be if we hit your immune system like that, if you get COVID-19 without having the vaccine then there’s a really significant risk that you’ll die”.
“It is such a complex area, I don’t envy your decision but I do standby the rules the transplant physicians have made,” he said.
Header image: Left, right, Vicki Derderian (Facebook).
The post Mum, 49, dies after being denied heart transplant for refusing Covid vaccine first appeared on The Noticer.
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