Parents want hospital to use non-vaccinated blood for their baby's vital heart surgery

A baby boy is waiting for a life-saving operation as his parents battle it out in court against Health New Zealand.

The baby in question requires vital heart surgery and a blood transfusion and the parents remain adamant that the newborn should only receive it from an unvaccinated person.

But Te Whatu Ora/Health New Zealand does not categorise blood in a way that would indicate if the donor is vaccinated or not.

Te Ratonga Toto O Aotearoa/The New Zealand Blood Service does not divide donations between the vaccinated or unvaccinated, or keep records of that data.

The health department is now seeking guardianship of the baby boy.

Michael Folmer / Alamy Stock Photo

The parents and Health NZ officials appeared in court on November 30 for a hearing to kick off proceedings, with 100 or so protesters rallying outside the High Court in Auckland.

Outside court, the baby's mother spoke in defence of denial of medical treatment for her son.

"We're desperate for the operation but we need to have safe blood," she said.

She went on to clarify that the parents do want their son to have the operation, and that their child is 'stable at the moment' so they can battle it out in court.

She added if the court does not rule in her favour, her child will go without the operation needed to keep him alive.

Lawyer for the parents, Sue Grey, told Radio New Zealand that the parents have found a donor they deem suitable for their baby.

Auckland University's Immunisation Advisory Centre medical director Professor Nikki Turner told New Zealand's The Project that it doesn't actually work like that.

She said the blood for the boy needs to come from a verified, safe donor, and not one the parents have chosen or any random soul who offers it.

"We need to offer this baby safe, quality blood product. We can't just give the baby any blood off the street," Prof Turner said.

Oleg Elkov / Alamy

She said the whole point of the NZ Blood Service is to ensure people get safe blood, which means it is the matching blood type and has had the relevant screens needed to test for viruses like HIV and Hepatitis.

Prof Turner added that doing a one-off emergency screening to get unvaccinated blood would see a whole can of worms opened up unnecessarily.

"Even if we could do that, then what if people think there is a problem and that's why we did it, so a hundred people ask us to do that and then 200 people, and we did it for no logical reason. We would be sort of opening up a problem that wasn't a problem," Prof Turner added.

As per the NZ Blood Service, there is also no evidence of any health risks in receiving a transfusion from vaccinated blood.

There is also no evidence that Covid-19 can be transmitted by blood transfusion.