Foreign Transplant-Interesting Information

[livecam]

When I was on dialysis I became interested in the possibility of a foreign transplant.  There are so many ways to go about getting one and so much information out there regarding it that I thought I would share some information that came my way earlier today.

I was in the hospital for a little day surgery and got into a conversation with my recovery room nurse.  She is from the Philippines and mentioned that her sister who still lives there received a local transplant two years ago.  It was a living donor transplant that she paid for out of her own pocket.  When I asked what her sister paid for everything my jaw about dropped to the floor with her answer.

The total cost of her sister's living donor kidney transplant was $6,000.00 U.S. dollars.  Wow!  Medicare here will pay far more than that for just a month of dialysis.  Any way you look at it...it is cheap!  Frankly, I was expecting the figure to be much higher.  Anyway...just a bit of information for those of you who might have wondered what this option might cost. 

[thegrammalady]

i would be worried about how safe it would be, clean etc. one of my doctors teaches in egypt during summers and he told me the conditions are terrible. i do realize some country's are just as good as the states, but i'd have to do a huge amount of research and would worry none the less. i even have concerns about some hospitals here. the price is interesting none the less.

[angela515]

Why do you have to pay for a kidney across seas?

[Chicken Little]

My dentist is from Iran, and his family is still there.  Just before my last cleaning his father was killed in a car accident and could have been a organ donor, but there were no takers.  He said the transplant wait time is nil because so many people die from violence/accidents each day.