Plea for more kidney donors

[okarol]

Plea for more kidney donors

12 March 2008 UK

A woman suffering from a rare genetic disorder has called on more kidney donors to step forward to stop people having to go through the ordeal of dialysis.
Jodi Smith (31) has cystinosis, a disease affecting around 150 people in the UK.


It damaged her major organs and caused her to have kidney dialysis.


She hopes that World Kidney Day today will make everyone aware of the need for donors to ease the suffering of people with kidney problems.


She said: "It is no fun on dialysis. It drains you of energy and can make you feel really sick.


"When you die you don't need your kidneys. You would be better off helping another person in need.


"We need more kidneys, not only does it help patients but it is better for the families and the people around them and means everyone involved can have a better life."


Mrs Smith, who lives in Bicker with husband Simon and daughter Chloe (9), has had two kidney transplants – the first as a child and the second f
ive years ago – and suffers from epilepsy and diabetes.

She also had a stroke, which left her with some brain damage.


She said: "When I had a stroke the doctors told me that I wouldn't walk again and that I wouldn't be able to have a baby so I suppose I have beaten the odds.


"You have got to stay strong. There are always people worse off than you."


She says she relies on the support of her family to battle on against her conditions.


Before the transplants Jodi had to undergo home dialysis, which her mum Christine Stukins was trained to give.


To mark World Kidney Day today she will be attending an event at Asda in Boston, where a host of balloons will be released into the sky at 2.30pm to coincide with similar events in London and Lincoln.


# To find out more about World Kidney Day visit www.worldkidneyday.org

http://www.spaldingtoday.co.uk/news/Plea-for-more-kidney-donors.3871554.jp

PHOTO: Raising awareness – transplant patient Jodi Smith.

[stauffenberg]

In the cruel, heartless, every-man-for-himself society of modern capitalism, where everyone is taught the same lesson a thousand times a day since childhood, that you don't do anything for anyone unless you are given money for helping, it is utterly absurd suddenly to turn around and expect people to give away their body's organs for free.  Why does our society find it perfectly moral that a person's protection against starvation, against death from the elements, and against disease, should all depend on how much protection they can afford to pay for, but then suddenlly turn around and find that it is immoral to buy and sell kidneys for money?  It is as though we were to say that unless you could persuade someone to give you food you would have to starve to death, because the gift of life that comes through food is too special and precious to be allowed to occur for money! 

The only way the organ shortage problem will ever be solved is either a) have presumed consent laws by which they government can claim all deceased body parts for transplant unless the deceased has registered a refusal to donate prior to death; or b) allow payment for surplus organs from living donors.

[rose1999]

that you don't do anything for anyone unless you are given money for helping,

Some people are like that, but in my experience it's a minority. I certainly wasn't brought up like that, neither were my family and friends and nor are any of our children.  And just look at all the IHD family do for each other with no thought of paymet.  I wouldn't dream of expecting money for helping someone out unless it had left me more out of pocket than I could afford to be. There is still some good in this world.  However I do entirely agree with your final paragraph.

[petey]

I agree with that last paragraph, too!

And, Rose, Marvin and I were brought up like you were; we think that we are expected, required, obligated to help our fellow man (with a happy heart and expecting nothing in return).  My mother says, "You earn one more tomorrow by the good you do today to help your fellow man along HIS life's journey."

[stauffenberg]

You can't ignore the fact that the name of the system in which we live is 'capitalism,' whose first rule is: do nothing unless it serves your own economic advantage.  You can't expect people raised under that sort of ideology to be naturally generous, which is what they would have to be to want to donate a kidney to a complete stranger.

I have lived in third world countries which have not yet adopted the commercial attitude of our culture, and I have always been astonished at the willingness of people there to help each other.  Everyone is financially desperate; no one can do anything to become rich; so they all simply help each other with no expectation of getting anything in return.  When your car breaks down in Santo Domingo, for example, you simply pull off to the side of the road and wait for someone with a good knowledge of mechanics to stop and help you for nothing.  But in our society, no one can afford to be generous, since the people we have to deal with everyday (bankers, mortgage-holders, landlords, employers, loan agencies, etc.) will punish us for not having insisted on getting money from other people for every good deal we performed, so we can then have enough money to defend ourselves against the cruelty of those trying to exploit us.

[okarol]

We had several offers from donors for Jenna. The ones that asked for money were from outside the US. Her donor Patrice would not accept any reimbursement.
There are altruistic donors, and they are very special folks!