Kidneys'R Us

[Marmaduke]

I just wanted to share my experiences on this subject.

When I was eight I was diagnosed with kidney disease. At age 13 I went into renal failure and spent the next 22 months on peritoneal dialysis. It wasn’t fun. I was alive, but not feeling great. I missed out on a lot as I had to be tied up to that machine for 10 – 12 hours a day.

When I was 15 my father donated his left kidney to me. My quality of life shot way up, up to where everyone else’s was my age. In total, I have three kidneys, my original two, plus his. Rarely do the original kidneys get removed. They only get removed if there’s a possibility that the original disease that attacked the first two can attack the new one.

As of September, I’ve lived longer with my father’s kidney in me, than I did with my original two kidneys + dialysis. My kidney functions are excellent and probably better than most peoples.

As with any surgery there can be risks. Roughly twelve hours after my father left the operating room, he was wheeled back in for emergency surgery because one of his arteries hadn’t been tied up properly.

As for my father’s health, other than the artery flub, it has never suffered. Sure he had a few weeks of discomfort from the surgery, but that was to be expected.

I’ve never met a donor who had any regrets whatsoever – and I’ve met a lot of donors. I also can’t recall ever meeting a donor whose health suffered long term, I’m not saying it can’t happen, but they make sure you’re in pretty good shape before they let you donate.

 

[boooeee]

But I fail to see eliminating the transplant waiting list as necessary. Organ transplants are a life-saving luxury.

Is it me, or does "life-saving luxury" sound like an oxymoron?

I am not trying to emotionalize this debate, but it seems odd that you would casually dismiss a life saving operation as a "luxury" and not "necessary".

 

[boooeee]

Jama article

THere many people report a degredation in health after donating a kidney and 97% would not recomend to others about selling kidneys

Thanks for the link. The full text of the study requires a login, so I will have to base my comments on the abstract:

1) It is unclear if this study is based on transplants done prior to the 1995 ban India implemented, or subsequent to it. If it occurred subsequent to the ban, then these transplants would have been done on the black market, and it would not surprise me if these operations had a poor safety record.

2) It is also unclear how the health of the donors was evaluated. From the text of the abstract, it says "About 86% of participants reported a deterioration in their health status after nephrectomy". If this was a just a yes or no question posed to the donors, then I would say this is a serious flaw in the study. I would be more swayed if there was actual clinical evidence to back this up. It's possible there is, but the abstract is unclear.

3) The most important point is that this is a study of the safety of tranplants done in India. If it is true that kidney donation is unsafe in India, then I would say that that is a valid reason for continuing the ban on paid organ donation in India. However, I have yet to see a study claiming that kidney donation performed in the United States has adverse health consequences.

I also think it is important to consider the degree to which health status is affected by organ donation. There are plenty of examples in today's society where people take upon risk of bodily harm in exchange for monetary compensation. Mine workers, deep sea fishermen, and truck drivers come to mind. The armed forces has been brought up already.

And, if you want an example that is closely analagous to organ donation, there is surrogate motherhood. I don't have the source readily available, so feel free to discount the following, but I remember reading that the risk of death was six times greater for a surrogate mother than for a kidney donor.

 

[boooeee]

Either way, the overall effect is negative.

There's a lot to tackle in this post (I didn't quote the whole thing), and some of it is probably for another thread, but I would like to point out that you are missing a term in your equation: The 4,000 deaths per year that could be prevented if there were enough kidneys available for transplant. I'm still not convinced that without this term, your equation sums to a negative, but with it, it seems to be a positive to me.

Also, as it has already been pointed out, the market for kidneys is not unlimited. From the Stanford link I posted earlier, there are currently 60,000 people on the waiting list. I think Darth Rotor's "pimple" comment is appropriate.

 

[boooeee]

I just wanted to share my experiences on this subject.

When I was eight I was diagnosed with kidney disease. At age 13 I went into renal failure and spent the next 22 months on peritoneal dialysis. It wasn’t fun. I was alive, but not feeling great. I missed out on a lot as I had to be tied up to that machine for 10 – 12 hours a day.

When I was 15 my father donated his left kidney to me. My quality of life shot way up, up to where everyone else’s was my age. In total, I have three kidneys, my original two, plus his. Rarely do the original kidneys get removed. They only get removed if there’s a possibility that the original disease that attacked the first two can attack the new one.

As of September, I’ve lived longer with my father’s kidney in me, than I did with my original two kidneys + dialysis. My kidney functions are excellent and probably better than most peoples.

As with any surgery there can be risks. Roughly twelve hours after my father left the operating room, he was wheeled back in for emergency surgery because one of his arteries hadn’t been tied up properly.

As for my father’s health, other than the artery flub, it has never suffered. Sure he had a few weeks of discomfort from the surgery, but that was to be expected.

I’ve never met a donor who had any regrets whatsoever – and I’ve met a lot of donors. I also can’t recall ever meeting a donor whose health suffered long term, I’m not saying it can’t happen, but they make sure you’re in pretty good shape before they let you donate.

Thanks Marmaduke for sharing your experience. I was not aware that kidney transplant recipients usually kept their original kidney.