Canada's Living Donor Paired Exchange Kidney Registry Hits the Century Mark

National organ donation registry celebrates 100th successful transplant
OTTAWA, Nov. 29, 2011 /CNW/ - Canada's ground-breaking Living Donor Paired Exchange (LDPE) kidney transplant registry has reached another significant milestone with the completion of its 100th successful transplant. The landmark transplant comes less than a year after the last province signed on to make the LDPE Canada's first truly national organ donation registry.

The LDPE - which operates as a partnership between Canadian Blood Services and transplant programs across the country - facilitates living kidney donations between patients with a willing but incompatible donor and other pairs in the same situation. Since launching as a three-province pilot in 2009, the LDPE has been a shining example of what can happen when programs work together, across provincial boundaries for the benefit of patients.

"A kidney from a living donor is the optimal solution for someone requiring a transplant," said Dr. Peter Nickerson, Executive Medical Director, Organs and Tissues, Canadian Blood Services. "Those organs tend to result in the best long-term outcomes for patients. Tools like the LDPE that have proven successful in finding matches for those in need have the potential to bring significant benefits to both patients and the health care system in general." Not only do those transplants improve and save lives, estimates suggest the net cost benefit of a transplant over dialysis is approximately $50,000 per patient per year. Using those figures, transplants that have occurred through the LDPE have resulted in excess of $5 million in cost avoidance already.

Much of the LDPE's success can be attributed to the presence of non-directed anonymous donors (NDADs), selfless individuals who have entered the registry unpaired and are willing to donate to anyone in need. 20 NDADs have already donated through the registry, and incredibly have sparked nearly 70 per cent of the transplants completed to date.

"Non-directed donors have played a role in this system that is nothing short of heroic. They have literally given a stranger their life back. It's hard to think of a more noble gift," said Dr. Edward Cole, Physician in Chief, University Health Network, and Chair of the National Kidney Registries Advisory Committee.

The LDPE was the first deliverable of Canadian Blood Services' mandate in organ and tissue donation and transplantation (OTDT). In addition to registry development, the organization - on behalf of the Canadian OTDT community - submitted to governments a comprehensive strategic plan, complete with 25 recommendations to significantly improve OTDT performance in Canada. That plan was delivered in April and is currently with governments for review.

As of the end of October, the LDPE has 247 donor-recipient pairs registered in the system as well as 25 NDADs. The registry continues to grow across the country, and with each new pair the chances of someone finding the match they need increases.

About Canadian Blood Services
Canadian Blood Services is a national, not-for-profit charitable organization that manages the supply of blood and blood products in all provinces and territories outside of Quebec. Canadian Blood Services also oversees the OneMatch Stem Cell and Marrow Network, and provides national leadership for organ and tissue donation and transplantation. Canadian Blood Services operates 43 permanent collection sites and more than 20,000 donor clinics annually. The provincial and territorial Ministries of Health provide operational funding to Canadian Blood Services. The federal government, through Health Canada, is responsible for regulating the blood system. For more information, please visit: www.blood.ca. For information on living donation or the registry, please visit: www.blood.ca/organsandtissues and click on "Living Donation".

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Your generosity can save or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You.

Rethinking the Fairness of Organ Transplants

"The new system will explicitly give points based on the likelihood of survivability."

Rethinking how kidney transplants are allocated

Harvard Business School
Author: Dennis Fisher

A proposal out of Harvard and MIT to rethink how kidney transplants are allocated could result in a fairer system giving patients longer lives.

The new empirical model, which is intensely data driven, would provide a flexible framework to policymakers responsible for deciding which potential recipients get organs as they become available—decisions that must be based on various priority and fairness criteria.

The method—the work of Nikolaos Trichakis of Harvard Business School and Dimitris Bertsimas and Vivek F. Farias, both of MIT's Sloan School—can help policy designers create the most equitable point system based on their chosen constraints and criteria. They detail the proposed model in a new paper, Fairness, Efficiency and Flexibility in Organ Allocation for Kidney Transplantation.

In early simulations, the model suggests that life-year expectancies for the program can be increased by up to 8 percent, depending on variables plugged into the process.

As with the "Moneyball" metrics movement in baseball, the goal of the model is to use the best available data to make the best possible decision in each individual case. But here, the ultimate objective is adding years to patients' lives, not just points to the team's winning percentage.

"Because of the organ shortage, you want a system that is transparent and perceived as fair by the candidates," says Trichakis, an assistant professor in the Technology and Operations Management Unit. "If you're one of them and you're not getting a kidney, you should be able to understand why and what the criteria are."

A long line
About 500,000 people in the United States suffer with terminal end-stage renal disease. The only treatments are maintenance dialysis and kidney transplantation. The former requires visits to a treatment center for at least 12 hours a week, while a transplant—from either a living family member or a matching deceased donor—can have the recipient soon resuming regular life activities. In mid-November, the active waiting list for a kidney stood at 72,845. Once an organ is available, there can be thousands of compatible recipients queuing up.

In the time since the US Congress passed the National Organ Transplant Act in 1984, organ allocation has been handled by the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN). This national registry and waiting list is managed by the private nonprofit United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), which has the unenviable task of making priority and allocation decisions for each new organ that becomes available.

Currently, this is done under a point system that takes into account a number of factors including the potential recipient's proximity to the available organ, blood type, life expectancy after a transplant, and various fairness criteria such as time waiting on the list.

Those decisions can be complicated by cold realities. Organs typically need to be transplanted within 36 to 48 hours, otherwise they begin to deteriorate, so recipients who live close to the source of the donated organ often are logistically preferable. Another difficulty: waiting lists can be much longer in some areas of the nation than in others.

But one particular concern has policymakers rethinking the current kidney-allocation process, a problem ironically created by improved medical treatments for renal disease. "Because patients are living longer, more and more of them are accumulating points just for being on the list a long time, which dwarf the points accumulated for a matching profile," says Trichakis. The end result: the allocation process "no longer meets the needs of the patients."

So, despite the best efforts of those involved, the current transplant point system is in need of fine-tuning. OPTN is developing a new policy and has put out a formal request for information to help guide that decision-making process, to which Trichakis, Bertsimas, and Farias are contributing.

Their key idea is to propose a new way of thinking about the problem. So far, OPTN has been conceiving the new process as an allocation system to provide good matches so patients survive longer, but with fairness. By contrast, rather than designing a policy and then looking at what the outcomes are, Trichakis and his coauthors allow policymakers to start with desired outcomes and then work backward using historical and other data to create a policy.

The group's proposed method determines how many life years can be added by looking at the expected survivability for every case. "The new system will explicitly give points based on the likelihood of survivability," says Trichakis. Fairness is measured by looking at the distribution of recipients across different groups by age, race, diagnosis, and blood type.

"This gives policymakers the ability to focus on what's important and relevant," he adds. "Right now, they focus more on what the policy should be and then the outcomes."

Putting it to the test
In order to test their methodology, the research team performed a series of case studies on policies with different criteria for matching. In the first instance, using the criteria and constraints of the current dominant policy, their method produced a program with life-year gains of 3 percent over the existing one. The results were significantly better—life-year gains of 8 percent—in a second study for policies that could be based on all score components considered by policymakers, while continuing to meet the fairness properties of the dominant proposal.

The model also allows policy designers to consider fairness factors not used before in the allocation process. "For instance, what is the impact of reducing the percentage of transplants to patients on dialysis for greater than 15 years by 1 percent?" their paper puts forward. "In the case of some constraints, relaxations of fairness constraints can result in life-year gains on the order of 30 percent. As such, we believe this is a valuable tool in the policy-design process."

The authors are preparing a new version that is specifically aimed at the medical community. The ultimate goal is to bring this work to the attention of the United Network for Organ Sharing and the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, allowing it to be considered alongside other proposals.

"The first step is for UNOS and OPTN policymakers to make a proposal, which would go to Health and Human Services for approval," Trichakis says. "The Office of Civil Rights is involved too. Everyone is still in the loop of thinking about how the system should look: how many points for dialysis time, waiting time, things like that.

"I wouldn't say there's going to be a proposal in the next month or so," he continues. "There are different proposals on the table. But we will start talking with policymakers about what we can offer."

Interestingly, Trichakis is not the only HBS professor playing a significant role in development of organ donor programs. Alvin E. Roth, cofounder of the New England Program for Kidney Exchange, is a pioneer in creating a system that allows living donors to exchange with others. So far, the program has been responsible for over 70 successful exchanges.

Kidney exchange programs are organized on the regional level, but the OPTN recently started a pilot program to test the concept on a national scale, where Roth's work is likely to prove equally influential. "Al's work has already influenced local policies and is perhaps about to go national," Trichakis says.

About the author
Dennis Fisher is a writer based in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

“You Have the Power to Donate Life – to become an organ and tissue donor Sign-up today!
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other Canadian provinces

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United States, organdonor.gov

United Kingdom, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

Your generosity can save or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You.

Cancer Patient Denied Liver Transplant After Using Medical Marijuana

There's quite a controversy over the use of medical marijuana and you can compare your thoughts on the subject with the many readers who commented in the original post.

By Lauren Lloyd laist.com
Doctors at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center removed a cancer patient from the liver transplant list in February for using medical marijuana and failing to show up for a drug test. Last week the 63-year-old patient, Norman Smith, asked the medical center to reconsider reinstating him.

Smith has been fighting inoperable liver cancer for two years and is in need of a new liver. He scored a spot on the transplant list last year but was removed after the drug test incident. Toke of the Town said Smith did test positive for medical marijuana. Cedars-Sinai transplant policy states that patients are still eligible for a transplant if they initially test positive for marijuana, but they must sign a statement promising not to use the drug. If they fail a random drug test or, like Smith, are a no-show for a test, they are bumped from the list. In order to be placed back on the list, Smith was ordered to abstain from using medical marijuana for six months, submit to random drug tests and undergo counseling.

Smith, who is currently undergoing chemotherapy and radiation, told L.A. Now, "It's frustrating. I have inoperable cancer. If I don't get a transplant, the candle's lit and it's a short fuse." His cancer recently returned after being in remission.

Joe Elford, an attorney with the medical marijuana advocacy group Americans for Safe Access, represents Smith and says that any delay in the transplant could be the "difference between life and death." Smith and Elford are considering a lawsuit against the hospital.

L.A. Now says that, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing, there is no standard policy on transplants and the use of medical marijuana. Due to the high demand for liver transplants nationwide, medical centers must prioritize. Over 16,000 people are on the national wait list for liver transplants. The average wait is approximately 300 days.

Dr. Goran Klintmalm, chief of the Baylor Regional Transplant Institute and an expert in liver transplantation, said, "As long as we have patients who die on the list waiting for organs... is it right to give [to] patients who have a history of drug use?"

One of the main concerns with granting a medical marijuana user a transplant is whether or not the patient will follow the complicated medication regimen post-transplant. Dr. Jeffrey Crippin, former president of the American Society of Transplantation and medical director at Washington University in St. Louis, claims, "If you are drunk or high or stoned, you are not going to take your medicine."

Cedars-Sinai spokeswoman Sally Stewart told L.A. Now that medical marijuana users can be exposed to a species of mold that can cause fatal disease among patients with weak immune systems. Patients are also susceptible to a fatal lung infection post-transplant. Stewart added that the center does not "make a moral or ethical judgment about people who are smoking medical marijuana" and that their "concern is strictly for the health and safety of our patients."

Dr. Steven A. Miles, Smith's oncologist, said, "Without a transplant, it is basically 100% fatal. It's just a matter of time."

Americans for Safe Access Chief Counsel Joe Elford wrote in a letter to Cedars-Sinai, "Cedars-Sinai would not be breaking any laws, federal or otherwise, by granting Norman Smith a liver transplant, and it's certainly the ethical thing to do."

Smith said he started using medical marijuana while suffering "extreme pain" and "physical anguish" after an unrelated back surgery. Miles approved of his patient's medical marijuana use to manage his pain plus the effects of chemotherapy and refilled Smith's medical marijuana prescription. Smith stopped using the drug in August and is hopeful for a liver transplant.

view reader's comments in the original article

“You Have the Power to Donate Life – to become an organ and tissue donor Sign-up today!
Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register

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Canada - Ontario beadonor.ca
other Canadian provinces

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United States, organdonor.gov

United Kingdom, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

Your generosity can save or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You.

Happy Thanksgiving Weekend

My very best wishes for a happy Thanksgiving weekend to my American friends. For us in the transplant community Thanksgiving takes on a very special meaning. Transplant recipients, their families and friends have much to be thankful for. Those of us who received transplants, such as myself, have been given a "second chance" at life and we will always be thankful and grateful to our donors and donor families for the extra time we've been given.

“You Have the Power to Donate Life – to become an organ and tissue donor Sign-up today!
Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register

New Zealand, register at Organ Donation New Zealand

Canada - Ontario beadonor.ca
other Canadian provinces

South Africa, http://www.odf.org.za/

United States, organdonor.gov

United Kingdom, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

Your generosity can save or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You

Heart transplant recipient in second Ironman triathlon

I met a heart recipient this week who, following his transplant, climbed mountains in Africa and Antarctica and skied to the North Pole. It is absolutely amazing how motivated organ transplant recipients have the potential to be transformed by their transplant. Dwight Kroening, whose story follows, participated in a study involving the effects of exercise on transplanted hearts. The results showed his new heart was in the same shape as that of an elite athlete.

By Meaghan Baxter Sherwood Park News

Completing one Ironman competition is an accomplishment in itself, but Dwight Kroening of Sherwood Park (Alberta) is aiming to complete his second.

This second time around in the Ironman also marks the 25th anniversary of Kroening's heart transplant.

In 2008 at the age of 49, Kroening completed the Canada Ironman in Penticton, B.C. and became the first heart transplant recipient to finish the gruelling competition, which consists of a 3.8 km swim, 180 km bike ride and a 42.2 km marathon.

His second competition will be Ironman Arizona in Phoenix, which takes place on Nov. 20. Kroening has spent hours upon hours preparing for the event and feels he is in better shape for the competition this time around. His final time in 2008 was 15 hours and 33 minutes and he hopes to improve this by at least half an hour.

"There's a lot of training, obviously, over the course of the year and ups and downs, not knowing if you're going to get the hours in to be able to do it, but it looks like it's going to happen," he added.

Arizona holds special significance for Kroening, as his transplant took place in Tuscon in 1986. He had been diagnosed with terminal heart disease at the age of 26 and given two months to live.

"I wanted to do something that would raise some awareness... as far as the fact that organ donations do work and to get people to sign their donor cards and let their families know," he said of his reasons for competing. "There's still a lot of people who don't make it to the transplant because there just aren't enough donors."

Even after the transplant was successfully completed, Kroening was still only given another five to 10 years. He is a firm believer that there is always something that can be done in terms of a person's health and urges other transplant recipients not to give up on their options.

When thinking back prior to his transplant, Kroening admitted he had a competitive streak and wasn't the easiest person to live with. He attributes the transplant to saving his marriage. It was this same hard-headed nature that may have been key to his success.

"I was very competitive and maybe angrier, hot tempered much of the time and strong-willed. I guess maybe that's another reason I survived these 25 years," he added. "We were told that I might have five years, I might have 10 years because that was all the statistics they had at the time... after you hit the 10 years, well, everything is a bonus from there."

In addition to completing the Ironman competition for a second time, Kroening also hopes to meet the donor family who saved his life. A year after the transplant, he found out his donor was a 23-year-old male from Phoenix who had died by suicide, which was hard news for Kroening to take in.

"You always wanted to go back and be able to thank the family personally, but I haven't had a chance to do that. There are very few transplant recipients that have met their donor families and had that opportunity," he said.

Kroening began competing after participating in a 16-week research study at the University of Alberta by Dr. Mark Haykowsky. The study involved studying the effects of exercise on transplanted hearts.

"I was always active and you always have in the back of your mind with a transplant, and especially a heart, that if I'm out there running or playing a sport, is my heart going to be able to handle the stress?" he said. "You never know whether or not you're going to collapse or something's going to go wrong with the heart, so this was a great opportunity for me to put it to the test and I guess resolve in my mind and give me some peace."

There was no holding back for Kroening in the study, and he asked Haykowsky's team to push him as hard as possible to test his limits. The results showed his new heart was in the same shape as that of an elite athlete.

From here, he began training with Ken Reiss, a post graduate student assisting with the study, who also happened to be a

triathlete.

"From there it just kind of went from one to the next, to the next, never really believing I could ever do an Ironman," Kroening said.

After Kroening completed a half Ironman, Reiss urged him to take a shot at the real thing.

Heading into the race, Haykowsky and the university cardiology team were all questioning whether or not Kroening would be able to withstand the extreme endurance test since it had never been done by a transplant recipient.

"It was probably the most exciting and most emotional thing that I've ever done. I've played sports on teams, I've won tournaments and won games and won league championships, but nothing compared to that," he said.

Kroening credits Hawkowsky, Reiss, the cardiology team at the University of Alberta and his own family for his achievements.

"You couldn't ask for a better bunch as far as I'm concerned," he said.

Kroening is also an active member in the Canadian Transplant Association, World Transplant Games and the Good Hearts Mentoring Foundation.

Completing one Ironman competition is an accomplishment in itself, but Dwight Kroening of Sherwood Park is aiming to complete his second.

This second time around in the Ironman also marks the 25th anniversary of Kroening's heart transplant.

In 2008 at the age of 49, Kroening completed the Canada Ironman in Penticton, B.C. and became the first heart transplant recipient to finish the gruelling competition, which consists of a 3.8 km swim, 180 km bike ride and a 42.2 km marathon.

His second competition will be Ironman Arizona in Phoenix, which takes place on Nov. 20. Kroening has spent hours upon hours preparing for the event and feels he is in better shape for the competition this time around. His final time in 2008 was 15 hours and 33 minutes and he hopes to improve this by at least half an hour.

"There's a lot of training, obviously, over the course of the year and ups and downs, not knowing if you're going to get the hours in to be able to do it, but it looks like it's going to happen," he added.

Arizona holds special significance for Kroening, as his transplant took place in Tuscon in 1986. He had been diagnosed with terminal heart disease at the age of 26 and given two months to live.

"I wanted to do something that would raise some awareness... as far as the fact that organ donations do work and to get people to sign their donor cards and let their families know," he said of his reasons for competing. "There's still a lot of people who don't make it to the transplant because there just aren't enough donors."

Even after the transplant was successfully completed, Kroening was still only given another five to 10 years. He is a firm believer that there is always something that can be done in terms of a person's health and urges other transplant recipients not to give up on their options.

When thinking back prior to his transplant, Kroening admitted he had a competitive streak and wasn't the easiest person to live with. He attributes the transplant to saving his marriage. It was this same hard-headed nature that may have been key to his success.

"I was very competitive and maybe angrier, hot tempered much of the time and strong-willed. I guess maybe that's another reason I survived these 25 years," he added. "We were told that I might have five years, I might have 10 years because that was all the statistics they had at the time... after you hit the 10 years, well, everything is a bonus from there."

In addition to completing the Ironman competition for a second time, Kroening also hopes to meet the donor family who saved his life. A year after the transplant, he found out his donor was a 23-year-old male from Phoenix who had died by suicide, which was hard news for Kroening to take in.

"You always wanted to go back and be able to thank the family personally, but I haven't had a chance to do that. There are very few transplant recipients that have met their donor families and had that opportunity," he said.

Kroening began competing after participating in a 16-week research study at the University of Alberta by Dr. Mark Haykowsky. The study involved studying the effects of exercise on transplanted hearts.

"I was always active and you always have in the back of your mind with a transplant, and especially a heart, that if I'm out there running or playing a sport, is my heart going to be able to handle the stress?" he said. "You never know whether or not you're going to collapse or something's going to go wrong with the heart, so this was a great opportunity for me to put it to the test and I guess resolve in my mind and give me some peace."

There was no holding back for Kroening in the study, and he asked Haykowsky's team to push him as hard as possible to test his limits. The results showed his new heart was in the same shape as that of an elite athlete.

From here, he began training with Ken Reiss, a post graduate student assisting with the study, who also happened to be a triathlete.

"From there it just kind of went from one to the next, to the next, never really believing I could ever do an Ironman," Kroening said.

After Kroening completed a half Ironman, Reiss urged him to take a shot at the real thing.

Heading into the race, Haykowsky and the university cardiology team were all questioning whether or not Kroening would be able to withstand the extreme endurance test since it had never been done by a transplant recipient.

"It was probably the most exciting and most emotional thing that I've ever done. I've played sports on teams, I've won tournaments and won games and won league championships, but nothing compared to that," he said.

Kroening credits Hawkowsky, Reiss, the cardiology team at the University of Alberta and his own family for his achievements.

"You couldn't ask for a better bunch as far as I'm concerned," he said.

Kroening is also an active member in the Canadian Transplant Association, World Transplant Games and the Good Hearts Mentoring Foundation.

“You Have the Power to Donate Life – to become an organ and tissue donor Sign-up today!
Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register

New Zealand, register at Organ Donation New Zealand

Canada - Ontario beadonor.ca
other Canadian provinces

South Africa, http://www.odf.org.za/

United States, organdonor.gov

United Kingdom, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

Your generosity can save or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You

UK baby survives heart attack when heart heals itself

Heart attack baby who topped emergency transplant list stunned parents and doctors when her heart healed itself

By Lauren Paxman MailOnline

The parents of a baby girl who was placed right at the top of an emergency transplant list have spoken of their amazement after her heart healed by itself.

Scarlett Ungurs, became desperately ill when a virus struck when she was six months old and left her with dilated cardiomyopathy - an enlarged heart.

She was placed at the top of the emergency heart transplant list for the country and on August 17 this year, she suffered a cardiac arrest.

Surgeons carried out a seven-hour operation put her on a Berlin Heart just days after her heart attack.

Scarlett, of Seaton Delaval, Northumberland, was hooked up to the 'artificial heart' which helped the left side of her heart pump blood around her body.

But, amazingly, her heart began to heal by itself as the life-saving equipment took the strain. Doctors believe that she is one of just 20 other children in the world who have seen their heart recover after the critical care and her parents had been told to expect the worst before her miracle recovery.

Scarlett's dad Darren, who was forced to leave his telemarketing job during Scarlett's treatment, said: 'She's our warrior. She's been through so much in her short life and she keeps battling back.

'She wouldn't give up and she's incredible.'

Darren, 31, and his partner, Ashleigh Leybourne, had moved to Tenerife and were working in bars when they discovered Ashleigh was pregnant.

They returned to the UK and Scarlett was born on December 4 weighing 8lb 8oz. But in July she was admitted to hospital after doctors diagnosed her with cardiomyopathy.

She was placed on life-saving medication before the couple received a call at 3.30am on August 17 to be told their daughter's health had deteriorated.

Her heart rate was up to 205 beats per minute and she was put on a life-support machine. Just five days later she suffered a heart attack and was put on the Berlin heart machine and was put on the transplant list.

But after spending six weeks in the Children's Heart Unit at the Freeman Hospital, her heart began to heal on it's own and doctors carried out a 'stress test' to ensure her heart was strong enough.

And they then carried out a second seven-hour operation to remove the artificial heart. She now faces weekly trips to hospital where doctors will test her heart.

Yesterday, the 11-month-old youngster has returned back to her home and next month will celebrate her first birthday.

'We feel so lucky': Scarlett with her parents Ashleigh Laybourne and dad Darren Ungurs
Mom Ashleigh, 26, a receptionist, said: 'I couldn't believe it, I was physically sick when they told me.

'She was so fat when she was born and I thought she was so healthy.

“You Have the Power to Donate Life – to become an organ and tissue donor Sign-up today!
Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register

New Zealand, register at Organ Donation New Zealand

Canada - Ontario beadonor.ca
other Canadian provinces

South Africa, http://www.odf.org.za/

United States, organdonor.gov

United Kingdom, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

Your generosity can save or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You

'The feeling was horrific, I wouldn't wish it on anyone. She was struggling to breathe so we just took her to the GP.

'We went to the hospital and one of the doctors had just finished their placement on the Children's Heart Unit. It was him who spotted what was wrong.

'We feel so lucky, we've got a lot to thank him for.

'Because the condition is so rare we were a bit scared. I didn't think she would get through it - I though she might die. But then she went on the heart machine and her heart started to mend itself.'

Darren added: 'The doctors and surgeons were just unreal. They saved her life and I would give them mine. They work 24-hour shifts and then leave but never expect any gratitude.

'We also owe a lot to the staff on Ward 23 - if you ask them any questions then they are always there to help.

'She had six months of being healthy and that's worked in her favor. Had she been ill from birth it might have been a different story.

'We wouldn't accept how ill she was. Now she's been released we're just terrified.

'A lot of people think she's completely fine but we know she's still got a long way to go.

Yitzhak Rosenbaum's Organ Trafficking

I am pleased to post this guest article by Elaine Hirsch

Levy Yitzhak Rosenbaum will go down as the first person in United States history against whom actual proof of human organ trafficking was found leading to an arrest. Though there have been other suspected cases of human organ selling, no concrete evidence was ever found until Rosenbaum's case. He was charged as part of a far-reaching 2009 New York and New Jersey crime sweep that ensnared mayors, rabbis, and money launderers. The nature of his crimes have sparked hot debate among master's degree pundits, doctors, and online commentators, but despite his purportedly good intentions Rosenbaum has been fairly roundly condemned.

Rosenbaum was born in Israel but resided in Brooklyn, New York as a member of the Orthodox Jewish community in Borough Park. For the charges against him he faces deportation back to Israel, up to 20 years in prison, and fines up to $250,000. In addition, he was required to return all moneys gained from his illegal organ trade, almost half a million dollars.

The money was obtained when Rosenbaum offered kidneys to patients who either didn't qualify to be on the national organ donor list or were very far down the list. He promised them a kidney with a blood type match for a price tag of anywhere from $120,000 to $160,000. The kidneys came from his native Israel, where donors were given a payment of $10,000 despite the fact organ trafficking is also illegal there.

In all, he sold a total of three kidneys. It was when Rosenbaum tried to make a sale of a fourth kidney that his growing business of human organ sales crumbled. He was approached by an undercover agent working on behalf of the FBI. Solomon Dwek was facing jail time for massive bank fraud and agreed to try and catch Rosenbaum selling kidneys on tape.

Dwek told Rosenbaum he had a sick uncle who would soon die without a kidney transplant. Rosenbaum bragged he had facilitated many kidney trades. "I am what you call a matchmaker" he told Dwek. He explained he could convince hospitals to believe the kidney donation was from a compassionate friend so they would do the procedure. He also explained the price was so high because everyone from Israeli visa officials to doctors had to be paid off so they wouldn't tell authorities about the illegal trade.

Rosenbaum's lawyers argued he never put anyone in danger and all the recipients and donors of the kidneys are now leading happy, healthy lives. They also pointed out all organs were willingly given by the paid Israeli donors, and none were forced into donation.

Despite some support for Rosenbaum and the arguments of his lawyers, he pleaded guilty to the sale of the three kidneys and to a single count of conspiracy to broker a kidney sale for the attempted deal with Dwek. His guilty plea and the recorded conversations seal his place in US crime history even before his sentencing, which will occur in February 2012.

About the author:
Elaine Hirsch is kind of a jack-of-all-interests, from education and history to medicine and videogames. This makes it difficult to choose just one life path, so she is currently working as a writer for various education-related sites, and writing about all these things instead.

“You Have the Power to Donate Life – to become an organ and tissue donor Sign-up today!
Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register

New Zealand, register at Organ Donation New Zealand

Canada - Ontario beadonor.ca
other Canadian provinces

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United States, organdonor.gov

United Kingdom, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

Your generosity can save or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You

Woman in hospital waiting lung transplant has home robbed

By Bob Boughner, QMI Agency ifpress.com

CHATHAM, Ontario - A 78-year-old father is appealing for the return of his daughter's jewelry including a ring bearing the initials J.A.

Peter Vanpraete of Thamesville said the jewelery and two VCRs were stolen from his daughter's Orangewood Blvd. home during a break-in last week.

Vanpraete said his daughter, Debbie, is in Toronto General Hospital fighting for her life and awaiting a double lung transplant.

"We dare not tell her about the incident,'' said the elderly parent who was visually shaken by the ordeal.

"But we would like the ring returned because it was an heirloom from her grandmother.''

Vanpraete said the thief or thieves climbed an eight-foot fence to get into the backyard and then broke into the home, located near the Salvation Army Church.

"Every drawer upstairs and downstairs in the house was ransacked,'' he said. "But as far as we know the only items taken were jewelry and the VCRs.''

Vanpraete said the break-in was reported to the Chatham-Kent Police Service and an alarm system was installed last weekend.

Vanpraete said his daughter, a pharmacist, has been in hospital for two weeks.

Vanpraete said he doesn't want to cause problems for anyone but simply wants the ring returned.

"I can't believe anyone would stoop that low,'' he said. "They must have badly needed the items to sell for drugs or something.''

“You Have the Power to Donate Life – to become an organ and tissue donor Sign-up today!
Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register

New Zealand, register at Organ Donation New Zealand

Canada - Ontario beadonor.ca
other Canadian provinces

South Africa, http://www.odf.org.za/

United States, organdonor.gov

United Kingdom, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

Your generosity can save or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You

Lung transplant patient given wrong pills

The lesson we learn here is to double-check our medications. I check mine at the pharmacy before leaving the store.

by Ian Robson, Sunday Sun
SWAP-op patient Kerry Newton came through her lung transplant...only to be put at risk by a Boots the chemist.

The High Street giant has launched an investigation after the 31-year-old was given an incorrect prescription.

Kerry was horrified after handing in a prescription for the anti-rejection drug Prograf only to be given another.

Kerry had only recently left hospital after having a transplant at Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital.

Doctors told her she must not use any other anti-rejection drug or risk problems.

But inside the packet, which was marked Prograf, was another anti-rejection drug Advagraf.

Kerry, 31, of Kenton, Newcastle, said: “I always check in the shop to see if it is the right box, and it was.

“So I took it home and opened the packet. It was only then, as I was about to take it, I realised something was wrong.

“The tablet was half white and half peach when it should have been all white.

“I complained to Boots the next day and I was told it would not have been safe if I had taken the wrong tablet. I can’t understand how it got mixed up.

“They can’t have checked the prescription properly to allow this to happen. The consequences could have been disastrous.

“It could kill someone giving them the wrong anti-rejection medication.”

Kerry’s partner Ben Laidler said: “I am just pleased that Kerry checked the tablets before taking them or who knows what would have happened.

“It’s unbelievable that a chemist as big as Boots could mess it up so badly.”

The prescription was dispensed by Boots in Harewood Avenue, Kenton.

Kerry had been on a transplant waiting list for three years before her operation earlier this year.

She had been housebound for a year and was on oxygen most of the day.

She said: “I felt like giving up because I had no life. The transplant has made a huge difference and I don’t want my recovery to be put at risk.”

A spokeswoman for Boots apologized for the mistake and said steps were in place to stop it from recurring.

She said: “We have apologized personally to Miss Newton for the dispensing error. Boots takes patient safety very seriously and our customer health and wellbeing is of the utmost importance to us.

“We are currently looking into the incident and will ensure measures are put in place to prevent this from happening again.”

“You Have the Power to Donate Life – to become an organ and tissue donor Sign-up today!
Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register

New Zealand, register at Organ Donation New Zealand

Canada - Ontario beadonor.ca
other Canadian provinces

South Africa, http://www.odf.org.za/

United States, organdonor.gov

United Kingdom, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

Your generosity can save or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You

Heart/lung patient was UK's longest surviving transplant at 26 years

TRIBUTES are being paid to a Chepstow woman who was one of the UK's longest surviving heart-lung transplant patients.

True fighter: Julie Bennett
By Lisa Hind FreePress

Julie Bennett, 46, of Burnt Barn Road, Bulwark, died at the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff, last Monday from heart failure and pneumonia.

Described as a "true fighter" by her family, Miss Bennett had survived 26 years as a heart-lung transplant patient and also recently battled a cancer diagnosis.

Speaking last week, her brother Paul said: "She went through a lot but she was a true fighter and didn't let it get in her way."

Miss Bennett underwent a heart-lung transplant at Papworth Hospital near Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, on October 10, 1985. At the time it was her only chance of survival.

Doctors said Miss Bennett was the seventh heart-lung transplant recipient and the first person with cystic fibrosis to receive the operation at Papworth.

Last year, the Free Press reported how she marked the 25th anniversary of the transplant by returning to meet staff at the hospital including her surgeon, John Wallwork.

But three months ago, Miss Bennett was diagnosed with cancer of the cheek, jaw and neck.

She had just finished six weeks of radiotherapy treatment at Velindre Hospital when she became ill with pneumonia and was taken to the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff. She died the next day.

Mr Bennett said: "It took its toll on her organs and it was just one illness too many."

Miss Bennett died with Mr Bennett and their mum Joan at her side. Mr Bennett said: "She was an inspiration to us. If anyone met her they would feel pretty ordinary. She just got on with her life despite everything and she loved her family."

The funeral of Miss Bennett took place on November 8 at St Christopher's Church, Bulwark, it was followed by a cremation at the Forest of Dean Crematorium.

“You Have the Power to Donate Life – to become an organ and tissue donor Sign-up today!
Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register

New Zealand, register at Organ Donation New Zealand

Canada - Ontario beadonor.ca
other Canadian provinces

South Africa, http://www.odf.org.za/

United States, organdonor.gov

United Kingdom, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

Your generosity can save or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You

An artificial heart offers a real chance

Read my previous post about Syncardia being awarded Arizona's Bioscience Company of the Year for their artificial heart and driver.

After years of declining health, Tammy Lumpkins becomes the first West Coast patient to be released from the hospital after receiving an artificial heart. The device will buy her some time until she can get a transplant.

Tammy Lumpkins packs up an extra Freedom Drive System, which powers her artificial heart.“I was ready to give up last summer,” she said. “Now there’s a light at the end of the tunnel and it’s getting brighter.” (Genaro Molina, Los Angeles Times / November 8, 2011)
By Anna Gorman, Los Angeles Times
When 46-year-old Tammy Lumpkins showed up at Keck Hospital of USC in August, she needed a new heart.

Her doctors got her onto the transplant list, but as she waited, her health deteriorated. Her liver and kidneys started to fail and she couldn't get out of bed.

"To say she was on the brink of death was an understatement," said Dr. Michael Bowdish, a cardiothoracic surgeon at Keck Hospital.

Photos: A New Heart

So in late September, Bowdish implanted an artificial heart in Lumpkins to replace both of the organ's chambers and all four valves. And on Wednesday, Lumpkins will become the first person on the West Coast to leave the hospital with such a device.

Lumpkins said she feels lucky to be alive and grateful to be leaving the hospital. Now she can watch her 19-year-old son graduate from ITT Technical Institute in December. And after nearly 20 years with heart problems, Lumpkins said Tuesday that she had renewed confidence that she would finally get better.

"I was ready to give up last summer," she said, sitting beside her husband in front of the hospital. "Now there's a light at the end of the tunnel and it's getting brighter."

Although artificial hearts aren't new, patients have traditionally had to stay in the hospital because the machine necessary to make them work weighed more than 400 pounds. Now, new technology allows patients to go home while they wait for heart transplants. The device, which weighs almost 14 pounds, can be carried in a small backpack.

"She can go home and live a normal life," said Bowdish, who directs the hospital's artificial heart program.

More than 950 people have received artificial hearts and 22 people in the United States have gone home with the lightweight devices, according to Don Isaacs, spokesman for SynCardia, the Tucson-based company that manufacturers the artificial heart. The device costs about $124,000 and an additional $18,000 a year to maintain, Isaacs said. Although the heart is approved by the Food and Drug Administration, the backpack device is part of a clinical trial.

Patients can live with the artificial heart for years, although the goal is to get them transplants as soon as possible. "But the reality is there's a wait, and sometimes a long wait," he said.

More than 3,100 patients are waiting for heart transplants. The average wait is 168 days, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing.

"The supply doesn't meet the demand," said Dr. Kathy E. Magliato, a cardiothoracic surgeon and president of the American Heart Assn. board in Los Angeles. An artificial heart can save the lives of patients who cannot wait for transplants, she said.

Lumpkins, who lives near Modesto, was 28 when she was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy, a disease that weakens and enlarges the heart. Five years later, doctors told her she had congestive heart failure. Since early 2010, Lumpkins said, she has been in and out of the hospital. Her husband, Dale, an electrician, said his insurance will pay for some of the medical bills.

Because she must stay relatively close to the hospital, Lumpkins will live temporarily at a friend's house in Hemet and return weekly for checkups. After the holidays, Bowdish said, he plans to actively start looking for a transplant heart.

With the machine pumping loudly beside her Tuesday, Lumpkins said she was nervous. "It's scary not knowing what's going to happen," she said. "But I'm feeling 100% better than I ever did."

Following the surgery to implant her artificial heart in September, Lumpkins and her husband renewed their wedding vows after 22 years of marriage. "I told her that her new heart had to love me as much as her old heart had," he said.

Photos: A New Heart

“You Have the Power to Donate Life – to become an organ and tissue donor Sign-up today!
Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register

New Zealand, register at Organ Donation New Zealand

Canada - Ontario beadonor.ca
other Canadian provinces

South Africa, http://www.odf.org.za/

United States, organdonor.gov

United Kingdom, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

Your generosity can save or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You

Presumed consent organ donation to be Welsh law by 2015

BBC news
The Welsh government says it plans to have a new law in place for presumed consent of organ donation by 2015.

The legislation would require people to opt out of donating their organs when they die, rather than opting in by signing the donor register.

A White Paper setting out a timetable is set to be published this week.

Opponents say they do not believe it will work and it will hit trust in the system but supporters claim it will save more lives.

The Welsh government has told the BBC Wales Politics Show that it is planning a system of "soft" presumed consent where family members would still be consulted after a person's death.

A spokesperson said: "We believe we should be progressive on this issue and follow the example of those countries with excellent records on organ donation, where an opt-out system is a key element.

"Introducing a soft opt-out system will mean people are more likely to make decisions about donation during their lifetime and to have discussed their wishes with their family."

It is thought that ministers will publish a White Paper later this week which will set out the legislative timetable.

Currently people have to opt to join the NHS organ donor register if they want to donate their organs and tissues after death.

Glyn Davies, Conservative MP for Montgomeryshire, said he would be seeking time in Westminster to debate the issue.

Losing people

"I want to spend half an hour explaining in a considered way why this won't work," he said.

"It does not deliver but a fraction more organs.

"One of the real problems I've got with presumed consent is that it undermines trust.

"I don't mind moving towards a presumptive attitude because almost everybody is in favour of organ donation so it's reasonable to have a presumptive attitude.

"But if there's presumed consent, then there's a suspicion and I think that does affect trust."

But Roy Thomas, chairman of the Kidney Wales Foundation, claims it will increase the number of organs available for donation by up to 30 percent.

"[It] will solve a lot of issues for people who are waiting for a transplant," he added.

"We are losing one person each week here in Wales and that's a huge amount of people who are dying and we need to give them hope.

"I believe the Welsh government has got this absolutely right and are progressive. Indeed I think the rest of the UK will follow."

“You Have the Power to Donate Life – to become an organ and tissue donor Sign-up today!
Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register

New Zealand, register at Organ Donation New Zealand

Canada - Ontario beadonor.ca
other Canadian provinces

South Africa, http://www.odf.org.za/

United States, organdonor.gov

United Kingdom, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

Your generosity can save or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You

Live Liver Donors, Tied With Long Term Health Risks

Liver split and ready to be removed
by Art Writ HealBlog.net

Organ transplant is a very useful and effective treatment modality available nowadays for those individuals who have malfunctioning and damaged body organs. In fact, there are already breakthroughs regarding first organ transplants such as transplant of the heart, kidney, lungs, pancreas, and liver. However, it entails many serious health risks which should be addressed because of the possibility that it can manifest in the long run, especially among those donors, such as those liver donors, according to a German study.

Liver is one of the most significant body organs that human body has. It has many vital functions, some of which include: metabolism of food to convert it into energy, metabolism of medicines and alcohol, and production of bile which is important for the emulsification of fats ingested through a bolus of food. And according to some researches, the liver has the ability to re-grow making it fit for liver transplant.

The new study tackled about the possible health risks that those individuals who underwent donation of a part of their liver can experience in the long run. According to the study, those live liver donors can actually experience physical and psychological complications years after the surgery.

The study followed about 83 study participants who have an average age of 36 and have donated a part of their liver for about 6 years ago. The researchers found out that about almost 50 per cent of the study participants had complaints of pain, digestive problems and depression years after the surgery for liver transplant. Specifically, there were about 31 per cent of the live donors who had experienced either series of diarrhea or fat intolerance, and about 10 per cent had regurgitation of gastric contents which is called as gastroesophageal reflux disease, and 3 donors reported that they had experienced episodes of severe depression.

Although, surgeons would rather choose to do transplant using organs which were from cadavers, still the availability of the organs are not enough to suffice the number of patients who are needing organ transplants such as liver transplant.

“You Have the Power to Donate Life – to become an organ and tissue donor Sign-up today!
Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register

New Zealand, register at Organ Donation New Zealand

Canada - Ontario beadonor.ca
other Canadian provinces

South Africa, http://www.odf.org.za/

United States, organdonor.gov

United Kingdom, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

Your generosity can save or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You

Organ traffickers prey on world's poor with money, threats

An international black market in organs — where brokers use deception, violence and coercion to buy kidneys from impoverished people, mainly in underdeveloped countries, and then sell them to critically ill patients in more affluent nations — is leaving a trail of victims around the world.

From the Seattle Times

By Michael Smith, Daryna Krasnolutska and David Glovin, Bloomberg News

About 5,000 people sell organs on the black market each year, according to Dr. Francis Delmonico, an adviser on transplants to the World Health Organization (WHO).

It's against the law to buy or sell an organ in every country except Iran, said Delmonico, president-elect of the Montreal-based Transplantation Society, which lobbies governments to crack down on illicit procedures.

Vasile Diminetz, a retired farmer, said his son, Vladimir, grew ill after a broker bought his kidney in Turkey for $2,000 in 1999. Vladimir died in 2003 at 25, after his remaining kidney failed, according to the Renal Foundation of Moldova, which has documented dozens of cases of organ trafficking. Photo: DIANA MARKOSIAN / BLOOMBERG
BABRUJSK, Belarus — Aliaksei Yafimau shudders at the memory of the thug who threatened to kill his relatives. Yafimau, who installs satellite-TV systems in Babrujsk, answered an ad in 2010 offering money to anyone willing to sell a kidney.

He saw it as a step toward getting out of poverty. Instead, Yafimau, 30, was thrust into a global journey that had him, at one point, locked in a hotel room for a month in Quito, Ecuador, waiting for surgeons to cut out an organ.

The man holding Yafimau was Roini Shimshilashvili, a former kick-boxer who was an enforcer for an international organ-trafficking ring, according to evidence gathered by police in Kiev, Ukraine. Yafimau said that when he pleaded to be let out of the deal, Shimshilashvili issued a threat: "He said if I didn't go through with it, he would leave me in Ecuador and kill my family," Yafimau said.

Doctors removed Yafimau's left kidney in July 2010 and transplanted it into an Israeli woman, according to the Kiev police investigation.

On the plane back to Belarus, on the western border of Russia, Shimshilashvili told Yafimau that if he wanted to live, he shouldn't talk to police.

"I am afraid for my life," said Yafimau, standing outside his mother's Babrujsk apartment building, a nine-story edifice surrounded by weeds and trash.

The traffickers paid Yafimau $10,000. He said it wasn't worth the fear that haunts him today.

Yafimau is one of the victims in a sprawling global black market in organs, in which brokers use deception, violence and coercion to buy kidneys from poor people, mainly in underdeveloped countries, and then sell them to critically ill patients in more-affluent nations.

The middlemen form alliances with doctors in leading hospitals who do these transplants for a fee, no questions asked.

Lack of donors

Global organ trafficking is on the rise, as desperate people seek transplants in a world that doesn't have enough donors.

About 5,000 people sell organs on the black market each year, according to Dr. Francis Delmonico, an adviser on transplants to the World Health Organization (WHO).

It's against the law to buy or sell an organ in every country except Iran, said Delmonico, president-elect of the Montreal-based Transplantation Society, which lobbies governments to crack down on illicit procedures.

"There have been successes fighting organ trafficking around the world," Delmonico said. "But organ trafficking continues to flourish because (criminal gangs) exploit shortages of organ donors."

Many of the black-market kidneys harvested by these gangs are destined for people who live in Israel. With a generally well-educated population of 7.4 million and a modern medical system, Israel has an acute shortage of organs.

Just 12 percent of Israelis are registered donors, meaning they have consented to let their organs be used for transplants after they die, according to the Israeli National Transplant Center. That compares with 40 percent of Americans.

Delmonico, a professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School, has spent the past six years lobbying governments and doctors around the world to combat organ trafficking. He said Israel's government is cracking down.

The Knesset, Israel's legislative body, passed the Organ Transplant Law in 2008, setting penalties, including imprisonment of up to three years, for buying and selling organs and requiring hospitals to scrutinize transplants by nonrelatives and foreigners. The government also banned insurers from paying for most transplants outside Israel.

New class of criminals

The dearth of available organs in Israel has spawned a new class of criminals, mainly immigrants from the former Soviet Union, said Jerusalem Police Superintendent Gilad Bahat.

"The criminal here is the middleman who profits from the sick and the poor," said Bahat, who investigated an organ-trafficking ring in Jerusalem. "It touches my heart that people will sell part of their body because they need money to live."

People have two kidneys that filter toxins out of the bloodstream. A patient with failure in both kidneys will die quickly unless he or she is hooked up to a dialysis machine or gets a transplant.

Investigators on five continents say they have uncovered intertwining criminal rings run by Israelis and Eastern Europeans that move people across borders — sometimes against their will — to sell a kidney.

Criminals see an opportunity to make big money in the organ trade, where they can sell a kidney for 15 to 20 times what they pay, police throughout Europe say.

Traffickers typically pay $10,000 for a kidney and collect $150,000 when selling it to a patient.

Traffickers prey on the most vulnerable people. Moldova, the poorest country in Europe, is one of their prime hunting grounds.

Dorin Razlog, a shepherd with an eighth-grade education who lives in Ghincauti, said recruiters for a trafficking ring told him cash for a kidney would lift him out of poverty. After doctors in Istanbul, Turkey, cut out the organ in August 2002, they paid him $7,000: $3,000 less than they'd offered. Of that, $2,500 was in counterfeit bills, he said.

"They told me they would send people to destroy my house and kill my family if I went to the police," Razlog, 30, said.

Today, the money is long gone, and he sleeps on a musty mattress inside the rusting hulk of an abandoned Russian van.

At the end of some days, Razlog said, he's writhing from pain in his remaining kidney.

"The only way out is death," he said.

In Mingir, Moldova, the organ black-market cost a man his life. Vasile Diminetz, a retired farmer, said his son, Vladimir, grew ill after a broker bought his kidney in Turkey for $2,000 in 1999.

Vladimir died in 2003 at 25, after his remaining kidney failed, according to the Renal Foundation of Moldova, which has documented dozens of cases of organ trafficking.

Vasile Diminetz, 70, said: "If I only knew, I could have saved my boy," he said.

Criminal investigations

Prosecutors in nine countries have been conducting criminal probes of organ trafficking involving Israeli patients since 2003. The largest case dates to that year, when the Brazilian Federal Police noticed people from two slums of Recife, a coastal city 1,311 miles from São Paulo, flying to Durban, South Africa.

In November 2010 in Durban, Netcare — South Africa's largest hospital company — pleaded guilty to violating the Human Tissue Act, which bans buying and selling organs. It admitted to allowing 92 transplants in which donors from Brazil, Israel and Romania sold kidneys to Israeli patients. Four doctors are awaiting trial on trafficking charges.

In Kosovo, Jonathan Ratel, who has dual citizenship in Canada and Great Britain and was appointed by the European Union to help restore the country's criminal-justice system, is overseeing a pivotal organ-trafficking case. It includes participants and victims from Belarus, Moldova, Turkey and four other countries.

Ratel said he's stunned by the callousness of the criminals who run the organ rings. Traffickers in Kosovo threatened one kidney seller with death if he testified, so the court had the man put into a witness-protection program.

"This is organized crime," Ratel said. "There is significant coercion and threats of violence."

“You Have the Power to Donate Life – to become an organ and tissue donor Sign-up today!
Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register

New Zealand, register at Organ Donation New Zealand

Canada - Ontario beadonor.ca
other Canadian provinces

South Africa, http://www.odf.org.za/

United States, organdonor.gov

United Kingdom, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

Your generosity can save or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You