Are you, or any of your relatives, in desperate need of a kidney transplant?
This is a place in the world where people are lining up at the hospital not to receive
a kidney, but to sell one of theirs.
Organ brokers are arranging paid transplants here every day.
In this video: where to buy a kidney legally and illegally, how much does it cost and why
it may not be a good idea.
Hello, this is Katherine.
Welcome to 00Kidney - don't forget to like and subscribe!
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This is the true story of a man.
We're going to call him NJ.
NJ, 43 years old, was on a kidney transplant list, patiently waiting for a kidney.
Like many patients, he heard about the kidney black market.
The cellphone of a broker was passed around in his dialysis group, furtively.
But he didn't want to buy a kidney.
He just wanted to wait for his transplant, while doing dialysis 4 times a week.
Every year in the United States, more than 5000 people die while waiting for a kidney.
Other 3600 people become too sick for a transplant and are forced to leave the list and spend
their days on dialysis.
Transplant lists are growing fast, but donors lists aren't.
Dialysis is not easy on patients.
During a single 3 hours session, a patient can lose up to 15 pounds.
They say that dialysis slowly kills you while keeping you alive.
NJ was slowly climbing the transplant list, when he suffered from a heart attack.
It didn't kill him, but he wasn't going to get any transplant, now.
He wasn't suitable anymore.
In the US, a year on dialysis costs the patient more than 80,000$.
In case of end stage kidney disease, the life expectancy is just 5 to 10 years.
And it could take up to 10 years of waiting on the transplant list to get a new kidney.
The worst part is that the longer a patient is on dialysis, the greater the chance of
organ rejection and complications are.
It is not surprising that NJ decided to call that organ broker.
The price asked for a kidney was $145.000.
Of that sum, the biggest part would have gone to the doctors, nurses and surgeons performing
the transplant.
The broker said he was getting only a small percentage, while the donor was getting almost
nothing.
In countries like India or Iraq, people are lining up at hospitals not to get a new kidney,
but to sell one of theirs.
Long kidney transplant lists aren't for receivers, but for donors.
There's actually a global surplus of kidneys, and this makes the scarcity of organs we are
seeing in the US even harder to comprehend.
It is not unusual for people in poor countries to sell their kidneys for the equivalent of
800-1000$.
Receivers are more than willing to buy a kidney from a living donor: statistics say that a
person with a kidney from cadaver has a hope for about ten years of kidney function.
At best.
A person with a kidney from a living donor, on the other hand, can have more than two
decades of kidney function.
Always more poor people are selling their kidneys when they become too desperate for
money.
Even where this is still illegal.
The only country in the world where you can sell a kidney legally is Iran, but it is not
the biggest market.
NJ didn't get discouraged by these moral problems.
He was in terrible shape, facing the end of his days.
He wasn't interested in the cost or in the life of the donor.
He just wanted his life back.
"I am desperate" said NJ to a reporter.
"It doesn't matter the cost, I need to live like a human being".
A couple of days after paying the broker 145.000$, he received a call.
He boarded a private plane, with no other passengers than the surgical team and three
other kidney patients.
He didn't know, but the airplane was directed to the city of Adana, in Turkey.
NJ got his transplant, eventually.
The organizations controlling the organ market are operating in countries where paid transplants
are technically illegal.
But governments are not enforcing this law effectively.
NJ found himself in a hospital at night time.
An entire floor of the hospital was commandeered by the medical staff for the transplant.
"Everything worked like clockwork", said NJ to the reporter.
Every night illegal transplants were performed there.
"While being prepared for the surgery, I saw a glimpse of the man who was giving me a kidney.
I wasn't worried; I was going to start a new life" said NJ.
Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned for him.
During the surgery, he suffered from a second hearth stroke.
There's a chance it was caused by an error of the surgeon.
He was flown home and, after just 5 days, his new kidney was removed from his body.
He spent the following months at the hospital, recovering from the two surgeries.
He was never contacted by the physician who performed the surgery in Turkey, nor by the
organ broker.
There were three other patients with him that got a new kidney from the black market that
day, and all of them are still doing fine after years.
They are healthy and free of dialysis.
My opinion is that the situation of the organs black market should spark a moral and ethical
debate.
Every day, there are poor people forced to sell a part of their body.
In the present situation, they risk not just to lose a kidney, but their life, due to the
risks of an unregulated market.
In the US more than 5000 patients die every year for a lack of donors.
And this number is only going to grow.
Wouldn't it be better for them if the organ market was regulated by the government rather
than some shady organization?
How many people could be saved every day?
And why isn't anybody even talking about this issue?
Do the media just prefer to let us blind about this entire situation?
This is all for today.
If you liked this video, please like and leave a comment.
Thank you for watching.