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Yulia Hicks: NC hospital denies kidney transplant to girl, 14, for not getting Covid jab as mom seeks help

Duke University Hospital in North Carolina told Yulia Hicks' parents that she was not eligible for its waiting list because she was not vaccinated against Covid

DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA: A North Carolina family has asked for help as their 14-year-old adopted daughter who has been suffering from a rare genetic kidney condition, was denied a kidney transplant by Duke University hospital for not being vaccinated against Covid-19. In January 2021, Yulia Hicks was adopted by Lee and Chrissy Hicks from Ukraine. They were aware that she had a rare kidney condition known as Senior Loken Syndrome, which would eventually mean she required a transplant. 

The parents were, however, told on November 11 that she was not eligible for Duke's waiting list because she was not vaccinated against Covid. "There's no sympathy whatsoever from any of them," said Chrissy Hicks, according to Daily Mail. "It's just strong-arming us: give her the vaccine, and you'll get the transplant." She said they had contacted a lawyer, but "can't have her life hanging in the balance with litigation" and were seeking a transplant at another hospital.

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The family said Yulia was infected previously but the hospital said CDC guidelines require vaccinations for transplant patients. "They said the CDC recommendation had been updated at the end of October, and they had to go by the recommendation, and if she didn't get the vaccine she wouldn't be getting a transplant at Duke," said Chrissy Hicks, speaking to Tucker Carlson on Friday night, December 9. "We've been dealing with these doctors from Duke for at least two years, because our dialysis goes through Duke as well," she explained. "We do it at home for Yulia. But the two doctors who denied us because of the Covid vaccine, we saw them for an eight-hour workup, and that's when they told us it was going to be required. Then we kind of pushed back a little bit. They put her in front of the committee on November 10th. She was rejected solely because of the vaccine that's when we decided to do a conference call and get actual evidence of them telling us this. Carlson called the hospital's decision "obviously unreasonable and viciously cruel." 

The call in which the hospital explained why Yulia was being denied the transplant was recorded by Chrissy Hicks. "I can't require you to do anything," a woman says. "I can recommend these things. But if you don't follow our recommendations then Yulia can't be a transplant candidate here. Based on number five, which is persistent non-adherence to medical dialysis treatment or medical recommendations, and also based on number 10 - which is medical risk factors that make the surgery unsafe. And being unvaccinated to the CDC recommended vaccinations, based on her age, is part of that."

The Hickses, who are reportedly devout Roman Catholics, have 11 children out of which three are adopted. They argued that Yulia was already affected by Covid once and so was protected but the hospital pushed back. "The virus has continued to mutate," a man tells them. "So the natural immunity is not as good as if you had natural immunity, plus vaccination."

Carlson said it was "so evil, it's hard to digest it." The mother of 11 said they have retained a lawyer but in the meantime are hoping "that a medical center will come forward and let us know they will perform the transplant without the vaccine."

"We have retained a lawyer. Mike Yoder is his name," she said. "We can't have her life hanging in the balance with litigation. So we're hoping that going on your show will give us exposure that a medical center will come forward and let us know they will perform the transplant without the vaccine. We would love for them to reach out to us. We've created a website, yuliagrace.com, contact us there, if there's medical center that will help us. We've also created - we have 11 children in our family. We aren't financially able to go out of state to do this. Go to giftsendgo.com."

She continued, "We've had an outpouring of help already. We are so grateful for people who have stepped forward. This comes down to: this is bigger than Yulia, so many families in the situation as Yulia, and we want to help other families. There's been a line drawn in the sand. If we don't stand up now for our medical freedoms, we don't won't be able to stand up soon."