Tune in Friday, July 15 @ 6:00 p.m. MST for the full interview on our Facebook, Twitter and Rumble platforms. .An Alberta woman has lost her legal battle against AHS, an Alberta hospital, and six doctors for removing her from an organ transplant list for choosing not to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. .Sheila Annette Lewis, an otherwise healthy 57-year-old Alberta woman, was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in 2018 and told she needed an organ transplant or she would not survive..Lewis was considered a “good candidate” for the organ transplant and labelled “high priority” on a waitlist by a team of physicians at an Alberta hospital. Due to a publication ban, the names of the doctors or hospital they work at, cannot be disclosed, nor can the organ Lewis is waiting to have replaced..However, in June 2021, Lewis was threatened with removal from the waitlist by those same physicians because she decided against getting the COVID-19 vaccine..The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF), in early September, wrote a legal demand letter to one of the physicians regarding the group’s decision to require all waitlist patients to be vaccinated against COVID-19, requesting they exempt Lewis..READ MORE: Alberta doctors temporarily lift COVID vax requirement for dying patient.The requirement "to take the experimental COVID-19 injection as a prerequisite to life-saving surgery is a definitive violation of Ms. Lewis' fundamental" freedom of conscience, right to life, liberty, and security of person, right to be free from discrimination and infringes on Section 1 of the Alberta Bill of Rights, argued Lewis' JCCF-contracted lawyer Allison Pejovic in her application to the court..With no response from the medical team, the JCCF proceeded with filing an injunction to prevent the team from removing Lewis from the waitlist and was successful. .A Consent Order was entered in court on December 9 stating, “until the injunction is argued in court and the judge renders a decision, Ms. Lewis will not be taken off the transplant list, and the physicians in the [program] will not deny her a transplant solely because she has not received the COVID-19 vaccine.”.The case was recently heard in the Court of Queen's Bench and Justice R. Paul Belzil ruled the Charter had "no application to clinical treatment decisions made by treating physicians" and Lewis' application was dismissed..READ MORE: Alberta judge rules doctors OK to drop unvaxxed patient from transplant waitlist.Lewis, understandably devastated and angry with the decision, said she is "scared" and isn't ready to leave her children and grandchildren so early. .Pejovic said the ruling is "heartbreaking" and shared her thoughts on the legal side of the case. She indicated the JCCF is still reviewing the ruling and will decide within a few days it if will proceed with an appeal. .Dr. Eric Payne, a pediatric neurologist and clinical assistant professor with a master's degree in public health from Harvard, is also on the science medical advisory committee for the Canadian COVID Care Alliance (CCCA). .The CCCA is a group of independent Canadian doctors, scientists and healthcare practitioners that provide "top-quality and balanced evidence-based information about COVID-19. .Payne said, in his medical opinion, as the science around the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccines is evolving, especially with the emerging new variants, so must the decisions around making the vaccines a requirement for situations such as Sheila is facing.
