A 12-year-old girl from Indiana whose mother is related to Vice President JD Vance was denied a heart transplant due to being unvaccinated against COVID-19 and the flu. Cincinnati Children's Hospital declined a religious exemption for Adaline Deal — who was adopted from China when she was 4 and was born with two heart conditions— after her parents said that the vaccinations go against their beliefs as Protestant Christians.

Deal's mother, Janeen Deal, who is related by marriage to Vice President JD Vance's half-siblings, told The Cincinnati Enquirer that she and her husband chose not to get their daughter vaccinated against COVID-19 or the flu after "the Holy Spirit put it on our hearts" and because she deems the vaccines to be unsafe.

"I thought, wow. So, it's not about the kid. It's not about saving her life," Janeen Deal told the newspaper after the hospital declined the exemption for her daughter.

The couple had hoped that the Cincinnati Children's Hospital, which they considered to be the best hospital in the area, would give the transplant to Adaline since she had received treatment there in the past decade.

However, the hospital issued a statement on Wednesday stressing that transplant recipients require vaccinations because of the higher risk of infections.

"Our responsibility is to ensure that every donated organ is used in a way that maximizes successful outcomes for children in need," the statement read.

"Because children who receive a transplant will be immunosuppressed for the rest of their life, vaccines play a critical role in preventing or reducing the risk of life-threatening infections, especially in the first year. These decisions involve discussion between our providers and the patient's family."


Dr. Camille Kotton, the clinical director of transplant and immunocompromised host infectious diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital, echoed similar remarks.

"In the beginning of the pandemic, we had many transplant patients become deathly ill and we actually lost a number of our transplant patients to COVID-19, because they are more likely to have severe outcomes," she said. "The first year after transplant is when they're at highest risk for infection, but they do have a lifelong risk of severe disease, and transplant patients are still dying because of COVID-19."

Janeen, however, contended that Adaline will not have issues with COVID-19 following the heart transplant.

"We'll take it as we can if it happens," she said. "But I know I cannot put this (vaccine) in her body knowing what we know and how we feel about it."

Janeen and her husband have 12 children, 8 of which are adopted. At the present time, the couple have launched a GoFundme page to raise funds for the transplant, which has raised over $50,000 so far, and are seeking out another hospital that can deliver the transplant without the requirement of vaccines.

Republican Rep. Jennifer Gross of Ohio is responding to the issue surrounding the Deal family by looking for co-sponsors to submit legislation that would prohibit children from being denied medical care because of their vaccination status.

"I'm proud to be the sponsor of the Ohio bill that seeks to prevent discrimination against religious liberty. Stay tuned. #PrayForAdaline," she wrote on X Friday.

Meanwhile, Janeen is working with Ohio Advocates for Medical Freedom, a group that advocates for Ohioans' rights to choose or refuse medical treatments, to support the bill.

"I'm so hopeful that this bill will save all the other children and adults so they don't have to go through what Adaline's had to go through," she said. "It's 2025. It's time to move on from all this madness. (Getting vaccinated) should be your choice."

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