As you probably already know, there is a serious shortage of organs available for transplant here in the US. Now, from the LA Times comes a story that may provide even MORE of a setback for efforts to sign up more organ donors.
From 2001 to 2004, renowned UCLA transplant surgeon Dr. Ronald W. Busuttil transplanted livers donated here in America into 4 Japanese mobsters. The first to receive a liver, Tadamasa Goto, is a Japanese mobster known for his brutality. He "coincidentally" donated $100,000 to UCLA 3 months after his surgery. UCLA also received another donation in the same amount from another Japanese criminal who also received a liver.
It's unknown whether Dr. Busuttil knew their criminal status prior to the surgeries, but when Goto was not allowed back in the country, he made several trips to Japan to examine Goto. The FBI arranged the transplants in hopes of gaining valuable information on Japanese organized crime families, however, it was a flop.
My opinion is that Americans should receive first choice at organs transplanted at US hospitals. It's especially reprehensible that this was done due to the fact that this is sure to alienate US citizens from signing a donor card/donating a family member's organs upon their death.
[...] I’m up and running on my other blog now at MyKidney.com. This is a site that eventually will include multiple bloggers at various stages of CKD (Chronic Kidney Disease); I’m blogging as a new transplantee. As of now, there is me, Krissi (who runs the site, and had a transplant from her brother last year), and Elizabeth, who is currently on hemodialysis and awaiting a blue sequined kidney . I have done 2 posts so far, and the second post is on an interesting subject. The LA Times reported on 4 Japanese gangsters getting liver transplants at UCLA, which meant that AMERICANS awaiting livers were passed by at least 4 times. Check it out here. [...]
I think that the organ donation system is more corrupt in the US than most people believe. I especially dislike websites that "advertise" for kidneys as if the site were a personal ad in the classifieds. I realize some people are desperate for a kidney and don't want to wait, but it just seems wrong to go around the system.
I was listed for almost 3 years, and had an incident where a person who was behind me on the list (and was the same blood type) got a call for a kidney, yet I didn't. When I brought this up with the transplant department, they admitted that even they didn't totally understand how the process worked, and that potential recipients were picked by the computer.
In the end, it worked out great for me (I got a 16 year old kidney), and the incident I mentioned could very well have been that the kidney offered to the other person may have been an inferior kidney, since she was elderly, and I'm fairly young.
Well Jeff, about the corruption on kidney transplants, I am not sure, but if it is real, is must be happening out of UNOS system and LifeLink knowledge.
About your transplant "turn", I think it is a bit of an immature comment. Thanks God you are content with your young new kidney and thanks God you finally did receive it, but saying "inferior kidney", as if you only deserved the finest available, leaving the rest to the others, not only is immature, but cruel. I hope it lasts for the rest of your life, but the "inferior" one might also last even more than yours. We will never know which one was more "inferior" than the other. The only thing we can be sure of is that adult donors give their organs with real love or at least because they care. Very young donors like yours or mine, don't do that. Their parents are the ones that take the desicion.
I am myself a kidney / pancreas transplant recipient from a 17 Years old donor.
[...] other day, I posted a story of some Japanese gangsters coming to the US and getting liver transplants. An official in the [...]