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They Go To China Saying, “It Is Easy to Get Organ Transfer Operations in China.”

They Go To China Saying, “It Is Easy to Get Organ Transfer Operations in China.”

Posted December. 23, 2002 22:34,   

한국어

The patients, who can maintain their lives only by organ transfers due to chronic illnesses of kidney, liver, and pancreas, go to China and secretly get organ transfer operations there instead of Korea because the procedures are too complicated in Korea.

They go to China even with big expenses because they can get operation more easily there than in Korea; however, the care for before and after operations are not done properly, so they might be infected by another illnesses and even lost their lives.

▽Real situation=As a result of our confirmation on the 23rd, 6 out of patients being treated in the S Hospital in Seoul, and 4 patients from the M Hospital in Busan, came back from China after receiving organ transfer operations such as kidney and pancreas in last 1~2 years. And it has been confirmed that in 4 hospitals including the other S Hospital and K Hospital in Seoul, there were at least one patient each who got organ transfer operations in China.

The medical circle assumes that more than 100 patients countrywide got organ transfer operations in China in recent 1, 2 years.

The patients are getting offered the organ transfer operations in China through brokers or patients gatherings, and it takes around 40 million won to do it. It is known that some of them got cheated by brokers and lost money without operation.

It has been confirmed that some of the patients, who got organ transfer operations in China, had ill effects like being infected by virus during the operation

The two patients out of 4 patients in the S Hospital in Seoul, who got the operation in China, were infected by the Hepatitis C, which had no medicine for it. And a female patient in her 40`s from the M Hospital in Busan is in serious condition because her septicemia got worsen right after coming back from China after receiving kidney transfer operation.

A Busan M Hospital official said, “A male patient in his 50`s got his first operation in China, but it failed, so he got the second operation,” and “I know that there are some people died during the operation in China.”

▽Why do they go to China=It is known that most patients go to China in desperation to live because it is almost impossible to get organ transfer operation in Korea.

Since the organ transfer regulation was in effect in 2000, the decision of brain death, organ donation, and operation procedures got more complicated, and the incentives for operating hospitals and brain dead people were gone, so the organ transfer operations have been reduced drastically.

According to the National Organ Transfer Control Center, although 162 people donated organs in 1999, donators have been smaller every year like 64 in 2000 and 52 in 2001. But on the other hand, the patients who are waiting to get operated are increased from 2,000 in 1999 to 10,000 now.

The Organ Transfer Control Center official acknowledged that it was almost impossible to get organ transferred in Korea; however, he said about the situation that Korean patients got operations in China, “I do not know it is true or not, and I do not have countermeasure, either”

It is the reality that there is no way to stop them to go China for organ transfer.

The Ministry of Health-Welfare plans to increase operations through complementing the system like giving the priority to the hospital that has a brain dead, but the medical circle sees that it is not enough.

The Professor of the Yonsei University Medical School Transfer Surgery, Park, Ki-Il said, “If the government does not propose a epochal countermeasure promoting organ transfers like revising the existing organ transfer regulations, the number of patients who got operations in China must be increased.”



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