Unvaccinated Ukrainian Girl, 14, Adopted by US Family, Rejected by Hospital for Life-Saving Kidney Transplant

A health care worker prepares a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at a UHN COVID-19 vaccine clinic in Toronto on Jan. 7, 2021. The Canadian Press/Nathan Denette

A teenager living in North Carolina has been denied life-saving surgery by Duke University Hospital officials because she is unvaccinated against COVID-19, leaving her adoptive family frantically searching for alternative treatment options.

Yulia Hicks, who suffers from a rare genetic kidney condition called Senior Loken syndrome, was adopted from Ukraine nearly two years ago by her parents Chrissy and Lee Hicks of North Carolina.