Many seeking foreign donors, dilemma faced by kidney patients

NST: Four out of five Malaysians needing kidney transplants are forced to seek donors abroad due to a shortage of organs in the country.
Besides the complications, medical and otherwise, arising out of surgery in a foreign land, they also return RM60,000 to RM100,000 poorer.
Health Ministry consultant nephrologist Datuk Dr Zaki Morad Mohd Zaher said those seeking surgery abroad had to pay far more than locally, besides risking infection.
Dr Zaki said some had to be re-operated upon here due to complications.
The situation has, however, improved over the past five years with fewer cases of complications and infection.
"Five years ago, at least 30 to 40 per cent returned with complications, mainly surgical problems, where doctors here had to re-operate.
"Although the number of complications, including infections and diabetes, has fallen over the past five years, patients must be careful where they do the transplant," he said.
He was speaking to reporters at a patient forum on "Coping with chronic kidney disease" organised by the National Kidney Foundation of Malaysia (NKF) at Crystal Crown Hotel.
Dr Zaki said some Malaysians going to China for transplants were given organs from criminals who were executed.
On kidney transplant patients, he said they had to be on life-long medication.
On efforts to boost the number of organ donors here, he said the National Transplant Co-ordinating Centre was doing its best to create awareness about organ donations.
He said the response was still not encouraging despite the repeated calls to Malaysians.
Dr Zaki said the survival rate for patients who underwent operations was 90 per cent for the the first year, 80 per cent (five years) and 70 per cent (10 years).
He said the majority of kidney transplants were done with organs from patient’s family members.
"Doing a transplant gives the patient a better qualify of life and in the long run it is cheaper than dialysis," Dr Zaki said.
He said cadaveric organs were preferred but were still difficult to get.
In the West, organs were normally taken from victims of road accidents, he added.
"Even Saudi Arabia, a conservative Muslim country, uses cadaveric organs for transplants but this is not so in Malaysia," he added.
There are some 12,000 kidney patients on dialysis with the Government spending almost RM300 million annually on them.