Good option for kidney transplant

I AM a kidney failure patient in my 30s and I have been on chronic dialysis for the past three years. This is the only way for me to survive.

Each dialysis treatment is relatively inexpensive thanks to help from the government. But life as a dialysis patient is very depressing. Although each treatment lasts about six hours, almost the whole day is spent travelling and waiting for my turn. After each treatment, it takes several hours to recover.

I cannot work to support my family. Even if I can, nobody will employ me. And there are expenses to bear as I continue with the treatment, including costs for travelling, consumables, special food and sometimes treating complications.

Most patients like me hope for a cure, which is a kidney transplant. But prospects for a transplant via a governmentsponsored scheme is virtually nil. Reports have shown that only a few kidney transplants are being done each year. Hope changes to despair as time passes.

This is why I was encouraged by the letters “Radical option for organ transplant” (The Star, Aug 2) and “Open talk on sale of kidney” (Aug 9). The writers, Gomez Jacob and Loong Si Chin respectively, offered good arguments for the government and doctors to consider live unrelated donor kidney transplantation in this country. There should be little apprehension of this being abused if it is regulated, as Loong has suggested.

I was overjoyed with the change of government on May 9 and our new Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s promise that the voice of the people would be heard. In spite of our medical problems, I believe most dialysis patients went out to vote for this change. This new government gives us hope, however audacious that may be.

I hope the new Health Minister will read this and the numerous other letters on the need for a new kind of thinking on solving the problem of growing numbers of patients on chronic dialysis.

I think kidney transplants are being done on Malaysians in India and China but probably secretly through agents. This is not right. I think it should be done openly with approval from the government.

As Datuk Dr Ghazali Ahmad, president of the Malaysian Society of Transplantation, noted in his response to Jacob in “Poor rate in organ donation” ( The Star, Aug 4), the Iranian model involves a state regulated price tag of US$1,200 which is paid to the live kidney donor, with options of topping up by some charitable organisations if needed.

I cannot see why Malaysia cannot follow this example and start a similar programme. Let Malaysia lead the world in this practice.

God probably gave humans two kidneys so that one could be donated when needed. This is why people can survive normally on the remaining kidney.

As Jacob has logically asked, if one can sell one’s car that one owns, why can’t he sell his kidney? How can the government say no?

YEW L.N. Puchong, Selangor