My Father's Successful Story

[sageguy]

My father's information:
Age: 64   
Race: Asian 
Cause: Uremia caused by long-term high blood pressure. Lost almost all of the renal functions.
Condition: At the worst time, he needed to do dialysis 3 times a week. Every time after the process, he had very bad headache. He was allowed to eat and drink little.

My father went back to visit Asia after living in Canada for 2 years. At home, he was diagnosed to be in the late stage of Uremia. His kidney had lost almost all the functions. To survive, we have only 2 options: 1. dialysis; 2. kidney transplantation. Because of the intolerable headache after every dialysis, my father went for the option 2.
Things went out very well after the decision. We put him into the waiting list in a leading hospital. I also passed his information to my friends who are doctors specialized in kidney transplantation and who are organ agents. Who we know made a lot of difference in the waiting time. My friends worked very proactively in seeking the kidney national wide. Within 3 months, we found an almost-perfect-match kidney donor.  The transplant operation was done even when I was still on my flight back home. Now it has been more than a year after the operation. My father lived the normal life again except that he needs to take some medicine daily.

When my father was in hospital, I saw another two foreigners having the kidney transplantation. One is from UK and the other is from Canada. I believe the hospital is quite open to admit foreign patients. They even arrange translators for the foreign patients.

Some conclusions after all of these:

1.   Seeking organ donation in other countries is much easier than in US, UK and Canada. The two foreign patients I met in the hospital had been in the waiting list in their countries for more than 6 years. Finally they looked into foreign donation and they got it in half year.
2.   The doctors in Asian are far more experienced than their peers in US, UK and Canada. They do tens of operations every year while their peers here do about 10-20 cases a year.
3.   The expense is much lower in other countries than here. It costs about 60k-100k USD to cover everything.
4.   The earlier for dialysis patient to do transplantation, the better chance for them to survive better and longer. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialysis)

Lastly, I would like to thank God for the blessing for my father. Please feel free to post your questions to me if you would like to learn more about the transplantation abroad. I would be very happy to help.

[angieskidney]

2.   The doctors in Asian are far more experienced than their peers in US, UK and Canada. They do tens of operations every year while their peers here do about 10-20 cases a year.
3.   The expense is much lower in other countries than here. It costs about 60k-100k USD to cover everything.

I am not sure about the actual facts of #2 and 3. Since he was in Canada #3 seems irrelevant since most if not all of Canada's Provinces have Provincial coverage where the patient would not have to pay at all. And in regards to #2 I would say that the Docs here are very experienced. Do you have any stats to back any of this up?

Anyway, I am glad your father is well. But even a transplant is a temporary measure with the meds having their own negative side effects. I had a transplant before for 11 years. Now I have been back on dialysis since 2001.

I do agree that a transplant is the best method for most but I am just concerned about some facts being off. Any comparison to the US however I know nothing about but in Canada I have never had to pay anything and the docs I have had (except for the one I had when I was a baby) were very competent. However, with how long the waiting list is (longer in Canada than in the US) I can understand why people would go overseas.

[sageguy]

Angieskidney has very good points regarding 2-3 and it may be worthy for more explanation.

Whether the doctors in Asia are more experienced, I believe it is quite related to how many operations they perform every year. Here is some stat, my friend who is a kidney transplantation doctor conducts more than 15 operations a month. Sometimes he needs to do 2 operations a night. I heard that doctors here (US/Canada) may do 1-2 cases a month. I guess you may know better about stats in CA and US as a patient.

In Canada you don't need to pay for the operation. Very true. It may be also true for UK. But given the time a patient need to be in the waiting list and the damage to health by dialysis, i.e. the expense of time and health, I believe 60k-100k USD can be a cheaper option. I hope all the patients can offer the operation.

I wonder if the insurance company in US should pay for the oversee transplantation rather than keep paying the expensive dialysis in a long term (from an economic view point). My 2cents.