24-year-old who needed double lung transplant wishes he'd been vaccinated for COVID-19

[Bleacher Creature]

https://news.yahoo.com/24-year-old-who-needed-double-lung-transplant-wishes-hed-been-vaccinated-for-covid-19-180810400.html

24-year-old who needed double lung transplant wishes he'd been vaccinated for COVID-19. A 24-year-old Georgia man who contracted COVID-19 and required a double lung transplant, and who remains hospitalized, has expressed his regret he did not get vaccinated for the virus, which has so far killed more than 607,000 Americans.

Blake Bargatze had told his parents he was putting off receiving a COVID-19 vaccine because he felt uncertain about its possible side effects, WSB-TV in Atlanta reported.

- SNIP -

Bargatze was the only member of his family who passed on getting vaccinated, Cheryl Nuclo, his mother, told Fox 5 Atlanta. Once hospitalized, however, he asked to be inoculated.

“The night before he was intubated, he wanted it,” Nuclo said. “So it was a little bit too late then.”

- SNIP -

I'm not sure what more needs to be said. People need to take this seriously and stop listening to idiots.

[roamer65]

1. The transplant should go to someone who is vaccinated.

It’s a precious gift and I’d rather see it go to someone who would safeguard it more.

[FoxNewsSucks]

2. +1000

Personally, I think that when hospitals fill up with the unvaccinnated, they should be evicted as needed to make room for actual emergencies, like accident victims or heart attacks.

They made the decision to do what MF45 said and not what he did, they should face whatever consequences that brings without depriving someone else who did take the right action.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

20. My immediate thought too. . . . nt

[Johnny2X2X]

34. Insurance should deny his claim

Insurance companies shouldn't be forced to pay for this when it was 100% preventable and he made the choice.

[marble falls]

3. I wish the poiticians who encouraged his skepticism would get a turn in the barrel.

[Duncanpup]

4. I agree

[spanone]

9. Starting with TFG

[marble falls]

11. So we're goingto have to find a really big barrel with two teeny-tiny hand-els.

[Blues Heron]

7. Side effects from the virus can be a bit worse

What condition does your wife have that precludes her? Why haven’t you gotten vaxed to protect her? Do you think the vaccine is toxic?

[Blues Heron]

18. Ok be safe

Hope they find way to get your wife vaxxed.

[marble falls]

13. The kid asked for a vaxx just before they intubated him. I don't criticize him - just the ...

... scum bag politicians who encouraged his skepticism.

I did the same thing you did: I waited for VA to call me. I wanted to be sure they'd be at least one more dose in the supply chain for someone with more health issues than me.

I think your wife is doing the right thing to listen to her physician's recommendations. Take good care of her: Delta is going to be bad in a month or two.

My wife and I still wear masks, and we are ready to self quarantine again. The pantry is full of dried foods, pasta rice, canned food, dried milk, flour and 10# of coffee beans from my favorite roaster. And tea for the wife.

[RockRaven]

6. There's no back to normal for this guy. The rest of his life will be an unceasing juggling of

medical complications and expenses.

Anyone citing vaccine side effects as a reason not to be vaccinated yet is either bullshitting to obscure their real reason or has very muddled thinking. Vaccine side effects? What about COVID side effects? Ever think about those? Because you will be exposed sooner or later.

[wnylib]

21. I am fully vaxxed and got my shots

as soon as the vacvine was available to me. But, before I was able to get it, I worried about side effects, too. I have numerous allergies and have had ansphylactic reactions to a few substances and to two medicines, although not to any vaccines.

When I learned that we had to wait 15 minutes to be sure there was no reaction, and that epi pens were on hand just in case, I felt reassurred. So I can understand that some people need assurances to feel safe about the vaccines. That's especially true for people who don't understand enough about biology or how the new mRNA vaccines work to sort fact from fiction in the rumors they hear.

I did have a mild reaction to the second Moderna shot a couple days after getting it, but it was only a skin rash near the injection site that cleared up in 2 days.

[Fullduplexxx]

8. Pretty sure this is b.s.

Blake Bargatze had told his parents he was putting off receiving a COVID-19 vaccine because he felt uncertain about its possible side effects, WSB-TV in Atlanta reported.
He dont want no fauci ouchi. You fkg libs go live your life in fear ... for me it's FREEEEEEDUM!

[femmedem]

10. I'm glad these stories are being publicized.

These stories of people who regret not getting vaccinated, whose lives will never be the same, just might persuade other people and save lives.

As for denying him a lung transplant, while I understand the logic of wanting to see it go to someone else, I would never want to withhold medical treatment because someone put themselves at risk. Lots of people have medical conditions because they ate food that wasn't nutritious, smoked, didn't wear sunscreen, didn't exercise. Medical care isn't only for the worthy, however you define it.

[wnylib]

23. Good points. We should not politicize

treatments, just as magats should not politicize precautions like masks and shots. There is no virtue in emulating the worst in others.

[femmedem]

27. Thanks. I was expecting to get flamed.

[wnylib]

30. There are times when I feel like

they should be last in line for treatment, after people who have been vaccinated. But I realize that such feelings bring out the worst in me and no responsible medical person would violate medical ethics that way.

I have talked to people who would get vaccinated, but are afraid to because they have heard false rumors about vaccines. They have no way of knowing what is true or false. I reserve my anger for the people who deliberately spread disinformation. The people who get scared away are double victims, first of the disinformation spreaders, then of the disease. They should not be victimized again by the medical community, or by us.

I'd like to see public service announcements that address the rumors and thst remind people that the disease is worse than the vaccine side effects. We should be doing more to address the disinformation. It would save lives, help to control the spread, and help to prevent new variants.

[femmedem]

35. So well said.

There's an article in the New Yorker on treating the unvaccinated, in which a medical professional wrestles with those same feelings.

"During our conversation, I asked Aberegg how it felt to care for so many critically ill covid patients, many of them middle-aged or younger, at a time when life-saving vaccines are widely available. “There’s a big internal conflict,” he said. “On the one hand, there’s this sense of ‘Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.’ There’s a natural inclination to think not that they got what they deserved, because no one deserves this, but that they have some culpability because of the choices they made.” He went on, “When you have that intuition, you have to try to push it aside. You have to say, That’s a moral judgment which is outside my role as a doctor. And because it’s a pejorative moral judgment, I need to do everything I can to fight against it. But I’d be lying if I said it didn’t remain somewhere in the recesses of my mind. This sense of, Boy, it doesn’t have to be this way.”

Really good article. https://www.newyorker.com/science/medical-dispatch/treating-the-unvaccinated

[wnylib]

36. I'm not a medical person, just someone

who sometimes needs to remind myself not to lose perspective and not to get too judgmental. It's easy to do. I don't feel any sympathy for people like the Jan 6 insurrectionists or the people who urged them on and continue to spout lies about it. I feel no sympathy for Proud Boys, Klan members, neo Nazis, or cops who murder citizens. Definitely not for TFG and his crime family.

I don't feel concern for the people who aggressively deny the seriousness of covid and defiantly refuse the vaccines for political reasons.

But I do feel bad for ordinary people who are trying to make good decisions, but are confused by disinformation and don't understand well enough how vaccines and the immune system work to sort facts from lies. A lot of them are not Trumpers or even political. They just don't have good sources of factual information to counter the lies. It's our job to counter the lies and go after the liars. Not just for the people who believe them, but for ourselves and the rest of the planet to defeat this virus and stop the development of new variants.

[Silent3]

33. Stories like this will perhaps persuade 1-2% of the people who are holding out

For the rest, they'll treat this as if it were propaganda, as if it were a made-up story, as if the guy telling the story is a "crisis actor". The entire conservative/Trumpian mindset is that no problem is real or important until it affects you personally.

[Grokenstein]

12. "The night before he was intubated, he wanted (the vaccine)," Nuclo said.

Flying Spaghetti Monster save us from these idiots.

[Caliman73]

14. It is sad that so many people need such a horrible consequence to learn.

How many stories have we heard about, "I wish I would have worn a mask, and now my grandma is dead" or like this guy, "I should have gotten vaccinated, now I am in a wheel chair forever".

I had concerns about the vaccine. Mostly because the process was started under an administration that was known for lying and putting pressure on agencies and companies to also lie and be corrupt. If Hillary had been in charge... scratch that, if Hillary had been in charge we would have been like South Korea, New Zealand, or Vietnam who stopped the pandemic in its tracks through proactive measures.

IF Jeb Bush had been in charge, I would likely have had NO hesitance to take the vaccine because even though Bush is an ass, he is not the most disgustingly dishonest, corrupt asshole in American political history like Trump. There is always pressure on companies and they sometimes cut corners for profit. There is legitimate concerns sometimes. Thing is, scientists have a code of ethics they follow and most of them, the vast majority of them, follow that code and do real science for the good of humanity.

There may be side effects for the vaccines. We may not know until years from now. What we do know is that the virus killed 600,000 people in the span of a year, likely way more than that. Those that it did not kill, like this young man, have serious lasting consequences from the disease.

They are not "side effects" of the disease, they are the EFFECTS of the disease. It attacks the lungs, the live, the muscles, the eyes, and many other vital body parts and destroys them. That is exactly what COVID-19 does. I am willing to risk side effects of a vaccine to prevent the EFFECTS of the disease.

[Initech]

15. I got both doses of the vaccine. Zero side effects whatsoever.

Other than my arm was slightly sore from where I got the shot, but that was about it. But yeah... get the vaccine before it's too late!

[lagomorph777]

32. I got sick for a few hours after 1st dose, and felt crappy for a few days after 2nd dose.

And I am so glad I did it! I would say the effects were EXACTLY what I had anticipated, and let me know I had been properly injected.

[bucolic_frolic]

17. You rely on a lot of experts in life - tradesmen, mechanics, advisors, professionals

I don't know how they just made doctors invisible to them. It wasn't about self-sufficiency.

[SunSeeker]

19. I actually got criticized by a woman for getting my 17-year-old son vaccinated.

She shook her head and said, aren't you worried about what it could do to him down the road?

[Traildogbob]

22. His body, his choice, right.

Insurers should deny coverage. 2 lungs 💰💰💰would be a bit worse than a college loan, like a million times worse.

[Evolve Dammit]

24. Can't help them. They don't want to educate themselves or participate, they may get very ill, or die

[speak easy]

25. "required double lung transplant" but " felt uncertain about [vaccine] side effects"?

but is OK with huge doses of immuno-suppressants in a half a million dollar operation to relpace both lungs? Sorry. No way. The world would be better off without your privileged ass in it. Die already.

"A GoFundMe page set up by Bargatze’s friends is raising money to help cover his medical bills"? (Cant believe how angry I am) No! Eat shit. Go away.

[Solly Mack]

28. Maybe he's a convert now and will act as a poster boy for getting other people to get their shots

I hope he can convince others to get vaccinated. He can make one heck of an emotional appeal.

Logic and reason isn't working with some folks.

[UCmeNdc]

29. Stop listening to idiots. Stop listening to Republicans.

Should be everyone's motto.

[lagomorph777]

31. Wait, so being unvaccinated has side effects too?