Sheila Lewis, an Albertan woman who was refused an organ transplant because she was unvaccinated against COVID-19, has reportedly died.

The Canadian Independent reported the tragic news on Thursday. 

Last year, doctors at Alberta Health Services (AHS) told Lewis she must be vaccinated to receive an organ transplant, which she would die without.

Lewis took her case to court. In November 2022, the Alberta Court of Appeal upheld a lower court’s decision to deny her an organ transplant. 

One of Lewis’ organ transplant doctors testified in court that the doctor had not read Pfizer’s adverse effect documents. The doctor also erroneously testified that COVID vaccines passed clinical trials.

“I have to keep appealing,” Lewis told The Counter Signal afterwards. 

“I have to keep fighting.”

The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF), which represented Lewis, argued that AHS violated her Charter rights. The appeal court ruled that a doctor’s medical judgment cannot violate a patient’s Charter rights.

Lewis ended up considering getting a transplant in the US, and started to raise funds for the cost. 

Earlier this year, she also filed a new lawsuit against AHS for medical malpractice. In July, AHS and Lewis reached an undisclosed settlement.

Evidence supporting vaccination on an Alberta government website points to a Lancet study done by American researchers, including some funded by the World Health Organization and Pfizer.