OTTAWA -- An Ottawa man who thought he had to wait months to receive his second dose of COVID-19 vaccine, despite being considered a patient in the highest-risk category, is now fully vaccinated.
Steve McArdle received his second dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at the Ottawa Hospital Civic Campus on Monday.
“It’s a relief,” said the 62-year-old. “It takes a little bit of the stress off and anxiety.”
McArdle, an organ transplant recipient, got his first dose on April 19 and was told by doctors to get his second one no later than May 17, but the earliest date he could book was Aug. 9.
Just after CTV News Ottawa shared McArdle's story, he was able to get an appointment for May 16 at the Eva James Memorial Community Centre, but then he got another call.
“The Ottawa Hospital called me and said, 'Okay, we have a spot we can get you in at the Civic and we can get you in at 8:30 Monday,'” he said.
In an email to CTV News Ottawa, the Ottawa Hospital said they receive patient lists from Ottawa Public Health, physicians and care teams for high-risk patients eligible for vaccination.
The clinic at the Civic Campus provides the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine but they also work with Ottawa Public Health to get doses of the Moderna vaccine if that's what a patient needs.
Now fully vaccinated, McArdle says he's lucky he got his second dose in time.
“There’s thousands here who are transplant recipients so if this happened to me I just hope it works out for them,” He said. “I don’t want anyone else going through what I’ve gone through.”
