‘They may not have another opportunity’: Pandemic complicates care for transplant patients

ORLANDO, Fla. — Savannah Nissel was about to receive the heart transplant she so desperately needed last summer when she tested positive for COVID-19.

The 22-year-old is one of many transplant patients whose health care has become more complicated during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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For nearly two decades, doctors had told Nissel her heart was slowly giving out. Then last summer, she said, it became clear that she needed a transplant.

“I actually was listed on July 14, and I was offered a heart on August 13,” she said. “And within 5 minutes of them calling to offer me that heart, my dad walked in the room and said, ‘hey, your COVID test results are positive.’”

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She had no symptoms, but had to turn down the heart and go inactive on the transplant list.

“And something that we worry about is that when patients are transplanted, if we pass up a heart, there’s always a very small chance that they may not have another opportunity that they may get sicker, and perhaps too sick and die before we can find that heart for them,” said Dr. Stacy Mandras, a transplant cardiologist at AdventHealth.

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“Every day, I got a little bit worse. And, you know, to think that the relief was right there at that door, and I just couldn’t open it was really hard,” Nissel said.

After a month, her test came back negative and she finally received a new heart in September.

But all transplant patients must take meds that quiet their immune system so that the body doesn’t reject the transplant. And those immunosuppressants make them extremely vulnerable to COVID-19.

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So getting the shot becomes a top priority. Nissel is now fully vaccinated and thriving.

Mandras said there are still some unknowns with transplant patients getting the vaccine as there’s no research yet to show if it increases a patient’s risk of rejecting the organ.

But she said the risk of COVID-19 is much worse.