A vaccinated Ohio man who is in dire need of a new kidney is having his surgery delayed due to the Cleveland Clinic’s new policy requiring coronavirus vaccinations for organ transplant recipients and donors.
After more than a year of pain, tests, and finally finding a match, Mike Ganim was just days away from getting a new kidney before the Cleveland Clinic announced that patients on the transplant list — as well as living donors — are now required to be vaccinated against the Chinese coronavirus, according to a report by News 5 Cleveland.
Ganim, 52, who was diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease when he was 27, had his health turn for the worse in March 2020 when he developed a blood clot that sent him to the hospital. That’s when doctors at the Cleveland Clinic told him there was no time to waste, and that he needed a kidney transplant.
“The kidneys were so profound with cysts that they just pressed and pressed and pressed on his main vein and it bottlenecked it and it went all the way down into his leg,” Ganim’s wife, Debi Ganim, explained.
It reportedly took months for Ganim to get onto the donor list, but he was eventually able to make it on in October 2020. Later, Ganim found a match — Debi’s friend, Sue George — and after some additional testing over the summer, the surgery was finally scheduled for Wednesday.
But then on Friday — just five days before the operation — the Cleveland Clinic called Ganim to inform him that his surgery was being put on hold because George isn’t vaccinated against the coronavirus, Debi told WOIO-TV.
After more than a year of pain, tests, and finally finding a match, Mike Ganim was just days away from getting a new kidney before the Cleveland Clinic announced that patients on the transplant list — as well as living donors — are now required to be vaccinated against the Chinese coronavirus, according to a report by News 5 Cleveland.
Ganim, 52, who was diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease when he was 27, had his health turn for the worse in March 2020 when he developed a blood clot that sent him to the hospital. That’s when doctors at the Cleveland Clinic told him there was no time to waste, and that he needed a kidney transplant.
“The kidneys were so profound with cysts that they just pressed and pressed and pressed on his main vein and it bottlenecked it and it went all the way down into his leg,” Ganim’s wife, Debi Ganim, explained.
It reportedly took months for Ganim to get onto the donor list, but he was eventually able to make it on in October 2020. Later, Ganim found a match — Debi’s friend, Sue George — and after some additional testing over the summer, the surgery was finally scheduled for Wednesday.
But then on Friday — just five days before the operation — the Cleveland Clinic called Ganim to inform him that his surgery was being put on hold because George isn’t vaccinated against the coronavirus, Debi told WOIO-TV.
