Just trivia - in Canada, dialysis like most medical procedures and interventions is free to the user but costs the government $60,000 annually. A kidney transplant involves a long waiting list and preference is given to those it will most benefit and who is most likely not to reject it. Regrettably it probably involves the decision makers playing God.
In both Canada and India the buying and selling of human organs is unlawful. Organs are meant to be harvested only from the dead who have volunteered to donate, while living. The law is flouted in India by doctors certifying that the donors are relatives and no money was involved. More of this below. The husband Bonny Pereira says that the transplant costs about 15 lakhs. That would be equivalent to $30,000, an affordable sum to most westerners a few of whom resort to this organ tourism. Even so, the amount mentioned by Bonny is the upper limit. A cynical view is that since he is depending on donations to fund this, he must have asked for the max. Besides as he mentions, one of the better hospitals (Hyderabad) is chosen. 5000 kidney transplants take place every month in India. A few years ago I was reading an investigative piece in an Indian magazine that mentioned most of the people in a certain village in Tamil Nadu were living on one kidney, having donated the other one. Unscrupulous middlemen were selling the kidneys for about one and a half lakh rupees to medical institutions and giving the donor not more than one third of that amount. Patients were of course paying a lot more after doctor and hospital fees were factored in. A glance at the internet shows that the current amount a donor in India gets after negotiation is about a lakh and a half. If that is the case, of the tiatrist's 15 lakhs, thirteen and a half go to the doctors, the hospital and the kidney supplying middlemen if the latter are involved. Greed of course often comes into play. Some doctors will remove the middlemen by harvesting organs from patients in the hospital who have died. One must take these "deaths" with a pinch of salt. For example my sister-in-law's former housemaid (she had left their employ in good terms) was admitted to hospital for a minor hernia. In a day, she died. Being from Bihar and having no relative, she was taken advantage of for an organ transplant gone wrong, to the extent of losing her life. Apparently she had filled in my sister-in-law as being the next of kin. My SIL's husband is a tough and aggressive no-nonsense Bombay Port Trust foreman diver. Called to claim the body, he rushed to the hospital to ascertain why a healthy young woman of about 30 would suddenly die. Noticing the stitches in the kidney area, he created a ruckus in the hospital for further information, but was stonewalled by staff and doctors. He reported the death to police as suspicious. Since the last 10 years, nothing has come of it. To anyone who knows how things work, this will be no surprise. Who would miss a poor single woman living by herself with no relatives in Bombay? What better candidate for a transplant. So when the tiatrist asks for prayers, I would request that some of those prayers go to the one living or dead whose kidney or kidneys go to her to bring her to better health. Roland. Toronto. -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of JoeGoaUk Sent: Wednesday, February 01, 2012 8:33 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [Goanet] Tiatrist Antonette de Calangute with failed kidneys, needs our prayers Tiatrist Antonette de Calangute with failed kidneys, needs our prayers – Husband speaks With latest heath update from her husband Bonny Pereira 31.1.2012 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Protect Goa's natural beauty Support Goa's first Tiger Reserve Sign the petition at: http://www.goanet.org/petition/petition.php ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
