Desperate to beat the clock and return to
good health, about 30 kidney patients head overseas every year for organ
transplants despite the risk of infection and the fact that organ trading is
illegal.
Once
home, they seek follow-up subsidized care at public hospitals or go to private
doctors, with few questions asked about how they got their new kidneys.
A
persistent shortage of organs means the waiting list for a kidney from a dead
donor here stretches an average of nine years. So some patients — especially
those able to pay between $50,000 and $100,000 — are tempted to go elsewhere.
China
and India are top destinations because organs are available to foreigners with
money, and ethnic similarity makes it easier to obtain a matching kidney.
Aside
from a peak of 49 overseas transplants in 2005, the number in recent years has
hovered between 23 and 39. Between 2006 and 2010, about two dozen returned with
medical problems.
In the
past, some returned with serious infections, mostly hepatitis, diabetes and heart
problems.
The
Health Ministry said at least half of those seeking transplants abroad are
under 50 years old. The total could possibly be higher, the ministry spokesman
said, since only those seeking follow-up treatment at public hospitals are
counted.
In
2008, there were 1,255 patients living with kidney transplants — of which 29
per cent were done overseas.
Doctors
here do not make a distinction between patients who had their transplant done
overseas or locally, saying their job is patient welfare, not the legality of
the transplant.
‘We
would like to assume that it was done legally, even if it was overseas,’ said
one doctor.
Latest
figures available show that 4,378 kidney patients were on dialysis as at the
end of 2009. That year, 1,264 were added - the number has been rising 3 to 5
per cent a year, mostly because of uncontrolled diabetes.
The
number of transplants using organs from dead donors appears to have shrunk —
from 46 in 2007 and 2008 to 36 a year for the past two years. As at December
2011, 436 patients were waiting for a kidney from a dead donor.
Last
year, 31 received a kidney from a living donor, up from 25 in 2010.
Straits
Times
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