Doctors deny 15-year-old a heart transplant because of a ‘history of non-compliance’

Anthony Stokes, a 15-year-old, in DeKalb County, Georgia has six months to live unless he receives heart transplant. As of now, doctors at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston refuse to put him on the transplant list because, according to his family, the doctors feel Stokes has a “history of non-compliance”.

His mother says the doctors claim that they don’t have any evidence that he will take his medication or go to his followups. Stokes’ family believes he isn’t being put on the list because he “has low grades and trouble with the law”. Shockingly the doctors don’t seem to be denying that claim.

Keepers of the nation’s transplant list have strict guidelines about who qualifies, and while doctors didn’t specify the reason, family friends told Channel 2’s Tony Thomas they’ve been told it’s partly because Anthony has had low grades and trouble with the law.

“The non-compliance is fabricating, because they don’t want to give him a heart,” family friend Mack Major told Thomas. “This is unacceptable because he must lose his life because of a non-compliance.”

“They’ve given him a death sentence,” said Christine Young Brown, president of the Newton Rockdale County SCLC.

How on Earth can these doctors possibly think that there is any sort of correlation between this kids actions up to this point, illegal or not, and what he would do to stay alive after life-saving surgery? There’s a reason why minors’ records are usually expunged and not held against them their entire lives. Because kids do stupid shit.

The doctors actually sent the family a letter saying that their son was being denied because of a “history of non-compliance”. How the fuck can a 15-year-old kid have a history of non-compliance?

I get it, transplant lists are strict and they need to be but we’re not talking about a middle-aged man here who has chosen to keep drinking after doctors said it would ruin his liver. We’re not talking about a 50-year-old person who has refused to follow his doctors orders repeatedly. We’re talking about a 15-year-old kid that, as of right now, doesn’t know his ass from his elbow. To give this kid a death sentence based on the actions of a teenager is despicable.

There is absolutely no way that any decision this kid has made in his life could have any reflection on his ability to take care of himself after a heart transplant. How many 15-year-olds do you know that have a grasp on their own mortality? This whole process is just absurd.