The news
services recently reported how an entire village was raided by unscrupulous
people stealing kidneys in India.
For harvesting their kidneys, each of the
villagers received $45 (about N15, 000). Once the victims were under the
influence of drugs, they removed their kidneys and sold them to wealthy
patients from America and Europe. The criminals apparently told the villagers
that the kidneys would grow back in a few months.
But, you know kidneys do not grow back, don’t you?
Apparently, many victims who survived the Tsunami in 2004, mostly women from
the southern coastal city of Chennai have sold their kidneys. I suppose the
destruction of their normal lives led to such desperation. There are now
organised cabals, including doctors looking for people to sell their kidneys in
India. Poor labourers are major target for the organised kidney racket. They
lure victims with the promise of jobs. On the streets, they buy kidneys for as
much as $3,000 (around N1m). Once you are in the grasps of these deceitful
persons, they remove and sell your kidney off in the black market for as much
as $85, 000 (you work out the sum).
Unsuspecting
Nigerians travelling to India for medical tourism also belong to this
vulnerable group. A Senator told me recently about his clansman that lost a
kidney in India. He travelled to India for medical tourism and entered into the
trap of the kidney thieves. Apparently, the Indian doctors had removed one of
his kidneys while performing some surgery on his abdomen. I understand that
when the victim found this out, he returned to India to confront the doctors.
You must understand that only not seedy hospitals but also popular
hospitals in India have been involved in this kind of practice. Though he
received compensation, no amount of money can pay for the misery of failure of
the only remaining kidney. Of course, the patient does not yet appreciate fully
the ramification of this grave loss. The health risks are significant. From
anaemia to hypertension, bone loss and need for dialysis. Just too many health
problems come with kidney failure.
An enemy within
There are accompanying problems travelling to India for medical
tourism. However, if you have to go, you have to go. Just be very careful and
go with a friend or relative. But, not the one who sourced the hospital for
you. This is important.
Many foreign hospitals advertising for patients in Nigeria use agents
who may even be relatives of the sick. They convert these people to ‘business
associates’ who will get a percentage of what you pay regardless of the
outcome. So, many have become charlatans, who prey on your ill health, and your
misfortunes to make money. They promote foreign hospitals in glowing terms as
if they own those hospitals. Of course, it is only a source of income for them
with you as the guinea pig.
Doctors are guilty too. Some Nigerian doctors refer patients abroad for
pecuniary gains. Some will even offer to follow you to India at your expense,
but mostly to make sure they get their percentage cut behind your back. They
push care abroad while being oblivious that one can obtain similar care and
good outcomes in many hospitals in Nigeria. With local treatment, you can have
members of your family in close attendance, eat your preferred food and have
easier and cheaper follow up. We can also detect and manage complications at
lesser cost here.
Transform health
Take the issue of spine surgery for instance. We have now operated on
hundreds of patients with neck and back pain, spine trauma and tumours
successfully in Abuja, Lagos and Enugu. We perform these operations daily with
good outcomes for the majority. In fact, a research done in 2012 revealed that
over 90 per cent of the patients would prefer to have their operations
performed again in Nigeria.
Kidney transplants have been conducted in Abuja and Lagos and
open-heart surgeries regularly take place now in Lagos and other areas. You do
not hear about these feats because doctors have a fear of the Medical and
Dental Council of Nigeria. You see, our doctors and hospitals do not advertise.
But, hospitals abroad are not bound by the same laws, ethics and principles. Sadly,
it is easier for you to hear about hospitals in the slums of Mumbai than what
is happening here in Ondo State, for example. However, things are changing,
slowly.
We did create a health care directory in Abuja to facilitate the
dissemination of such information about facilities and programmes in the city.
So, if you have the directory, you would know who the local specialists are,
what each hospital can do and what equipment, such as CT and MRI scans, they
have at their disposal. Information is power.
Reference:
punchng.com
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