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.