JD Vance's Family Member Was Denied a Heart Transplant Based on Her Vaccination Status

After Donald Trump took office for his second term, his vice president, JD Vance, sort of faded to the background a bit. Now, one of his relatives revealed that someone in his family was denied a heart transplant. So, which of JD Vance's relatives was denied a heart transplant and what was the reason behind the denial? People are also curious about what, if anything, Vance has said about it.

Vance has been open about sharing his life with his supporters. Well before he took office as the vice president, he wrote the memoir Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, and a Netflix movie based on the book was released. When he was picked as the VP, he and wife Usha Vance shared their relationship and family with the world. The revelation of one of Vance's distant family members being denied a major medical procedure put Vance in the spotlight in a different way.

Although the family tree is a bit confusing with some branches twisting this way and that when it comes to Vance's family member who was denied the transplant, according to The Cincinnati Inquirer, she is a 12-year-old girl who was adopted by one of Vance's family members through marriage from one of his half-siblings.

The girl's mother, Janeen Deal, told the outlet that Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center refused to put her daughter Adaline on a list for a heart transplant because she is not vaccinated against the flu or COVID-19. Adaline was born with two heart conditions. Deal told The Cincinnati Inquirer that she knew her daughter would need a heart transplant at some point in her life when she adopted her at age four.

Because Vance's distant family members by marriage are devout Christian and have beliefs against vaccinations, they had expected the hospital to honor their wishes to put Adaline on the transplant list without the necessary vaccinations. However, according to them, they were denied a spot on the waiting list because of Adaline's lack of vaccinations.

Although Vance has not publicly shared a statement about his relative by marriage's health struggle and beliefs against vaccinations, he has spoken out about the COVID-19 vaccination before. In November 2024, Vance appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast and shared his thoughts on the vaccine.

He shared that he took an unnamed vaccine against COVID-19, but that he was more sick after the vaccine than he was after he contracted the virus a reported five times.

"We're not even allowed to talk about the fact that I was as sick as I've ever been for two days, and the worst COVID experience I had was like a sinus infection," Vance said at the time. "I'm not really willing to trade that."

Vance has not shared a statement about his relative's heart transplant denial at this time.