Ohio Hospital Denies New Heart for 12-Year-Old Relative of Vance, Says Family

Adaline Deal’s parents say Cincinnati Children’s Hospital requires the COVID-19 vaccine for transplant recipients but they oppose it on religious grounds.

The Deal family includes four biological children, three adoptive children, and parents Jeneen and Brayton Deal. Courtesy of the Deal family

Jeneen Deal said her 12-year-old daughter is being denied a life-saving heart transplant at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital because she didn’t take the flu and COVID-19 vaccinations.

Deal said that her daughter Adaline urgently needs surgery but the hospital won’t put her on the transplant list because she has not taken either injection due to the family’s religious beliefs.

The mother said the hospital also won’t transfer Adaline to other facilities capable of performing the procedure, and a release is required under her insurance plan. Deal said that the family has state health insurance, which restricts the hospitals eligible to perform the transplant procedure.

“We’re just buying time here. I’m just hoping we have time,” Deal told The Epoch Times.

Deal is the mother in-law of Chelsea Deal, Vice President JD Vance’s sister.

Jeneen Deal and her husband, Brayton, have seven children, three of whom were adopted. They adopted Adaline from China when she was 4 years old, fully aware that their daughter had a serious heart condition.

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital did not respond to The Epoch Times’ multiple requests for comment, including to confirm the hospital’s policy on flu and COVID-19 vaccinations for patients.

“At Cincinnati Children’s, clinical decisions are guided by science, research and best practices,” spokesperson Bo McMillan wrote in an email to The Enquirer.

“We tailor care plans to each patient in collaboration with their family to ensure the safest, most effective treatment.”

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital also did not respond to The Epoch Times’ query about whether the hospital withheld Adaline from the transplant list.

The heart transplant program at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital is approved by United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS).

A spokesperson from the United Network for Organ Sharing told The Epoch Times that transplant hospitals establish their own criteria for evaluating candidates, which they use to determine who gets placed on the transplant list.

“Ultimately, OPTN does not provide guidance on medical decision making, instead transplant hospitals look comprehensively at the patient and evaluate based on their set criteria,” a spokesperson said, referring to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network.

“Different transplant hospitals may have different listing criteria and make different listing decisions.”

The Epoch Times also contacted the Ohio Solid Organ Transplantation Consortium for comment but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

‘A Year of Fighting’

Deal said it took months for the hospital to diagnose her daughter with two heart-related issues: Ebstein anomaly and Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome.

Ebstein anomaly is a rare congenital heart defect characterized by the malformation of a heart valve and parts of the right ventricle, which can eventually lead to heart failure, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome is an electrical malfunction in the heart that causes a rapid heartbeat, according to the Mayo Clinic.

“It took a year of fighting with them but they wouldn’t do the procedure. They kept saying [Adaline] was fine. But her heart was not fine,” Deal said.

Deal said the family contacted Boston Children’s Hospital and learned that they could perform the heart transplant within a week, provided the Cincinnati hospital signed the release.

The family’s situation led Deal to seek help on social media, where she expressed her fears and frustrations.

This connection brought her in touch with Stephanie Stock, president of the nonprofit Ohio Advocates for Medical Freedom. The organization states it is “advocating for your right to choose or refuse any medical treatment or procedure.”

“You can’t even get on the list until you get the shots. You get the shots, or you don’t get a heart,” Stock told The Epoch Times.

“Children are paying the price.”

Stock said the organization is “just trying to leave every option open to help them in any way we can.”

According to the NIH, the cost of a pediatric heart transplant is approximately $222,000 for the organ, with an additional $18,000 in follow-up costs during the first year after surgery.

New York-Presbyterian Hospital reports that approximately 500 pediatric heart transplants are performed each year in the United States. The survival rate is 100 percent one month after surgery and slightly over 96 percent in the first year.

The NIH adds that the average survival rate for heart transplant recipients is 15 years.

The Deal family has launched a GoFundMe page with a fundraising goal of $100,000. To date, they have received $50,535 from donors, including one individual who contributed $25,000.

‘Small Window’ of Opportunity

Stock alleged that the situation constitutes religious discrimination by the hospital against the Deal family.

She described Adaline’s condition as “touch-and-go.”

Adaline Deal (R) poses with Chelsea Deal, sister of Vice President JD Vance. Courtesy of the Deal family

“It’s your heart, so she could all of a sudden get fluid on her heart. She has to get on the list sometime in the next three weeks. We have a small window,” Stock said.

In the meantime, Stock said that her organization is strongly advocating for Ohio House Bill 319, known as the Conscientious Right to Refuse Act.

This bill would prohibit hospitals, clinics, health care providers, and insurance companies from denying employment or services to anyone based on their refusal to receive an mRNA injection or any other form of “gene-editing” technology.

Ohio Rep. Jennifer Gross, a Republican, is a key sponsor of the bill, which she believes is essential for protecting medical freedom.

“Our voter base spoke clearly and loudly this last election. Medical freedom is important to Ohioans and the nation,” Gross told The Epoch Times in an email.

“I implore my colleagues to stand with me by co-sponsoring [this legislation] so that we can finally put an end to vaccine status discrimination in the state of Ohio and lead the way for the rest of the nation to do the same.”

Stock said that the issue is that Adaline may not have sufficient time for the bill to pass through the Legislature and receive the governor’s signature.

Since being adopted, Adaline has been “like a ray of sunshine,” Deal said.

“She wants to go back to school. She loves people. She makes people happy because she’s always smiling.

“Last night, she had a tough time [with headaches]. I was really worried,” Deal said.

“I’m not going to let her die,” she said.