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Kidney donor trade uncovered by ±«Óãtv's Inside Out
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There is an acute shortage of kidney donors for people from ethnic groups in the
Midlands - and that is forcing some to take desperate and dangerous measures.
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Inside Out finds out about the transplant tourists who pay tens of thousands of
pounds and travel around the world for an operation that could kill them.
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Recent research by Dr Indranil Dasgupta, a consultant nephrologist from
Heartlands Hospital in Birmingham, is exclusively revealed on Monday night's Inside Out programme.
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He has discovered through a survey of people in
the West Midlands who bought kidneys abroad that one in eight died
within a couple of months of their operation and two-thirds returned with serious
complications.
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The Inside Out team follow a trail that leads from a Midlands' kidney unit to
India, as they investigate the bleak underworld of the kidney organ trade where
people are willing to go to extreme lengths to resume normal and healthy lives.
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Patients are travelling abroad to countries like India and paying for kidneys to
avoid undergoing years of dialysis treatment whilst waiting for a donor.
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India is
one of a number of countries in the world with a thriving black-market, dealing
in the sale of human kidneys.
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The southern city of Chennai has built up such a
reputation in the area that part of it is now widely known as 'Kidney Town'.
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The team encounters some of the poorest of India's slums, meeting people willing
to risk their health and potential imprisonment to sell their kidneys in order to
pay for families' weddings and funerals.
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People from Britain can pay anything up to £100,000 for a kidney but in India
most of the donors receive little over a few hundred pounds.
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The people reaping
the benefits from this illegal trade are the agents who arrange the organ
transplants.
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Research conducted in Birmingham has revealed the dangers of the transplant
trade.
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Initial results show a very high rate of death after kidney
transplantation, with more than 60 per cent of operations resulting in complications.
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Such statistics reveal the risk of travelling abroad for a kidney transplant.
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Unfortunately, whilst the organ shortage persists, this illegal practice is
likely to continue.
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Inside Out is on ±«Óãtv ONE West Midlands on Monday 9 October 2006 at
7.30pm. Ìý
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