A three year old boy, a Russian national in need of urgent heart surgery was turned away by several hospitals in different countries recently. He underwent heart surgery in Nicosia, Cyprus here he resides with his parents, during the summer. At that time all that was required was a PCR test from his parents .He now needs more complex surgery which cannot be performed in Cyprus.
Initially the young boy was due to be airlifted by helicopter to a hospital in Frankfurt that had agreed to carry out the surgery. At the last minute the hospital refused because neither of the boy’s parents has been vaccinated against Covid 19.
This decision was taken by the hospitals as there is no national policy concerning children of unvaccinated parents. The hospital allegedly refused a compromise offered by the parents that the boy could be accompanied by a vaccinated adult. They require that children in these cases be accompanied by a guardian.
The European Commission cannot provide a resolution to this issue as it claims that decisions concerning unvaccinated people are at the discretion of each individual country. However, in this case the little boy is three and the issue is not that he is unvaccinated but that his parents are not.
Both the UK and Israel quickly followed suit and also rejected the boy as his parents were not fully vaccinated.
The original hospital in Cyprus says that they warned the parents beforehand so they knew the risks they were taking. The parents do not believe that vaccinations are necessary for healthy people.
Nonetheless, they have both since been vaccinated. However, it will take up to six weeks for them both to be considered fully vaccinated.
The little boy was eventually accepted by the pediatric unit of Mitera hospital in Athens, Greece where he is currently awaiting surgery scheduled to be carried out by Dr.Sarris.
These events have raised important ethical, moral and legal questions within the health care systems of several major countries. There is no requirement in any country for a three year old to be vaccinated to undergo surgery. Yet, hospitals are taking partisan decisions to refuse children treatment based on their parents’ vaccination status.
