Kidney failure patients rush to China
Kidney failure patients rush to China
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Some 300 local kidney failure patients have undergone transplant
surgery in China over the last decade as they could not find
donors at home, an association revealed on Saturday.
Muchrodji, an advisor to the Indonesian Kidney Transplant
Association (PACGI), said the patients underwent their operations
in the Taiping People's Hospital in Guangdong.
He claimed 99 percent of the operations were successful and
the patients were now living normal lives.
He was addressing a symposium on improving the quality of life
of kidney failure patients.
Muchrodji encouraged patients to undergo kidney transplant
operations as the overall cost was less than dialysis.
Kidney transplants seemed to be expensive, but afterward the
patients no longer needed dialysis or to adhere to a strict diet.
They could also start working normally again.
Patients who opted for dialysis had to carry out the procedure
twice a week and were unable to work normally.
The PACGI is an association aimed at providing information on
the prevention and cure of kidney disease. It also engages in
fundraising to support patients of limited means suffering from
kidney disease.
Gao Wei of the Taiping Hospital, who attended the symposium,
said he would promote kidney transplants here and cooperate with
local hospitals in helping them to carry out the operation.
He said a Taiping clinic would be built in Jakarta to diagnose
kidney failure patients before they were transferred to China for
surgery, thus reducing the treatment period in China from a week
to three days.
Separately, secretary-general of the Indonesian Nephrology
Association (Pernefri) Suhardjono suggested that the government
enact a new law facilitating people if they wished to donate
their kidneys to other people who needed them.
"Therefore, around 50,000 patients here could be helped by
kidney transplant operations," he said.
Kidney failure is common for those who suffer from, among
other ailments, high blood pressure, diabetes and kidney stones.
The usual symptoms are exhaustion, loss of appetite and
anemia.