Man with kidney failure removed from transplant list because he is unvaccinated

Shamgar Connors, of Stafford, Virginia, was reportedly told by the University of Virginia's Transplant Center that he is no longer eligible for a life saving kidney transplant because he has not received the COVID-19 vaccine.

In a phone call between Connors and a doctor at the transplant center given to Newsmax, the doctor explained that because of his vaccination status, he is no longer considered "active" on the list.

"Our policy is if you — in order to have people active on the transplant list and get a transplant you need to be fully vaccinated. You don't want to move forward?" the doctor said.

"I’d rather die of kidney failure," Connors said.

"Okay. So this may be — I mean this may be a crossroads at your evaluation because I don't — there's — that's not — there's not going to be any exception to that, the science is pretty clear on the vaccine," the doctor responded.

"I just had COVID and I got over it. I'm not scared of it," responded Connors. "Like, you have a 99.9997 percent chance to survive."

"That's not, yeah. That's all pretty inaccurate data. But it is obviously your choice, but it's not your choice if you want to be active on the list," the doctor said.

Newsmax host Grant Stinchfield said that his show's producers attempted to call the UVA Transplant Center for comment, but once were told that they would call back and never would, and another time, they hung up on the producers.

"Well, I'm afraid you're probably not alone here. How concerned are you now? I mean, I guess, are you facing death in the eye?" Stinchfield asked Connors.

"Well, you know, ultimately, I mean, my condition won't get any better, that's what I'm told by the doctor. So unless I get a kidney transplant, yeah, the only alternative is death," Connors said.

"And I've already been on the waitlist three years, maybe more than that actually. And so now I'd have to start all over somewhere else, so most likely by the time a kidney would come up which is for me, O positive blood, six or seven years is what they tell me the wait time is, I might not be alive by then."