Imagine a doctor telling you that your baby cannot be put on the transplant list because it has not been vaccinated. That’s the situation Clint and Hannah Stoll found themselves in this summer when a vaccine-crazed doctor denied their newborn a heart transplant because it wasn’t vaccinated. After a failed surgery, Dr. David Bearl told the parents of baby August that he would have to be vaccinated before a transplant could be performed. Harriet Alexander reports for the Daily Mail:
A six-month-old baby in Tennessee with a heart defect has finally been added to the waiting list for a transplant, after his evangelical parents claimed their doctor told them their child had to be vaccinated first.
August Stoll was born in December, and his heart defect was diagnosed when he was 13 days old.
He has spent much of his young life in Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital in Nashville, and in June had heart surgery but his parents were told he would need a transplant.
‘The transplant team (specifically Dr. David Bearl) gave us an ultimatum that if we did not give August a series of vaccines, he would keep him off the transplant list,’ wrote his mother Hannah Stoll on June 24, on the website Tennessee Stands, a libertarian and religious organization.
‘He specifically used the phrase, ‘I am mandating,’ about eight times during our first conversation about this.’
She did not specify what vaccines were required, or detail his explanation.
‘The second conversation, I reasoned and debated with him over the insanity of giving my baby vaccines with a huge risk of a negative outcome, on a severely immunosuppressed child on their death bed,’ she wrote.
‘He continued to refuse. I asked him if this was legal. He said no. I asked if this was policy. He said no.
‘Our third conversation (this morning), he came and asked me if I had any more questions. I asked if he changed his mind. He said no.’
Hannah, who in 2011 described herself as ‘a California girl’ who moved to Tennessee after falling in love with and marrying Clint Stoll, appears to work at No Greater Joy ministries.
She said that she was adamant August not be vaccinated.
‘I firmly believe with absolute confidence that it is despicable, unethical, heartless, and disgusting to withhold a heart from a six-month-old baby over this,’ she wrote.
‘I believe loading his body on these [vaccines] will kill him. I believe it is within my rights as a parent to choose this for him. I believe that this doctor holding this over us is motivated by ego.
‘As his parents, we have a responsibility to protect our son at all costs. He is dying, and time is of the essence.’
Yet on Monday, the family wrote on Instagram that August had now been accepted onto the transplant list.
It was unclear whether they had decided to vaccinate him, or whether the hospital had waived the alleged requirement.
Neither the Stolls, their local aspiring congressman Robby Starbuck representing them, nor the doctor or hospital responded to DailyMail.com’s request for comment.
‘August has been quickly placed on the transplant list,’ the family said.
Action Line: Saving a baby’s life shouldn’t depend on its vaccination status. Stick with me.
