An unvaccinated Canadian who’s been denied a life saving organ transplant now has the option to receive the transplant in the US, but at a hefty price tag.
Sheila Annette Lewis has been fighting Alberta Health Services’ (AHS) decision to remove her from the top of the organ transplant list over her decision to refuse the Covid-19 vaccine since last year. Earlier this year, the Supreme Court of Canada decided not to hear her case.
Lewis says a hospital in Texas has agreed to perform the transplant surgery, but it will cost Lewis $600,000 USD. Lewis is hoping to fundraise the costs off GiveSendGo.
“The only thing we have is hope,” she told True North.
She must first pay $100,000 for testing before being placed on the donor list to ensure her body is healthy enough for a transplant. Lewis says the hospital requires the full amount before beginning testing.
It’s the same testing she underwent in Canada, but health officials stopped testing her two years ago when she declined the Covid vaccine.
If she’s approved, which Lewis is confident she will be, the surgery is estimated to cost an additional $500,000.
As of Thursday morning, the GiveSendGo fundraiser sits at around $35,000. It’s far short of the $100,000 goal, but more than $10,000 was raised in just one day.
Lewis was unsuccessful at both the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench and the Alberta Court of Appeal in 2022, with both levels of court finding that the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms does not apply to the Covid-19 vaccine policies of AHS, the Alberta Hospital where she would receive her transplant, or her transplant doctors. Both courts also dismissed her claims under The Alberta Bill of Rights.
There is a court-ordered publication ban that covers the organ Lewis is seeking a transplant for, the names of the doctors, and the hospital’s name and location.
In a November ruling, the appeal court acknowledged it’s a “virtual certainty” Lewis will die without an organ transplant.
In March, Lewis provided her Alberta Transplant Program doctors with a privately funded medical report, known as the Kinexus Report, establishing her natural immunity to Covid-19.
She has now filed a new negligence claim against AHS and awaits a court date.
“I’m not going to go away,” she said in a recent interview with Rebel News. “I have to fight for my life.”
“I don’t want to die. I’m 58 years old and I have a reason to live. I have grandchildren and I have children.”
In November, the Alberta Health minister’s office said transplant programs are obligated to do all they can to ensure the best possible outcomes of a donated organ. Patients awaiting treatment are required to be vaccinated against infections like diphtheria, tetanus, polio, pneumococcal pneumonia, meningitis, influenza, Covid-19 and more, the office said.
The former Alberta Health minister, Jason Copping, lost his seat in the May 29th election.
You can support Lewis’ GiveSendGo here.
