Premier McGuinty used misleading language in announcing $4 million in additional funding to support living-donor organ donation in Ontario. He had to be talking about kidney transplants, aside from a very few partial liver transplants, kidney are the only organs harvested from living donors. McGuinty stated organ transplants save hundreds of lives a year in Ontario. Not true.
Kidney transplants may improve the quality of life for patients with end stage renal disease but they do not save lives. Transplants are an alternative to dialysis treatment - both work. Over the life of a successful transplant, kidney transplantation may be less costly than dialysis but it is no panacea. And while the transplant patient leaves behind the tedium of daily dialysis treatment, new health risks associated with anti-rejection drugs are assumed.
A mythology has been build around organ transplantation which seriously deludes the general population into believing this is an appropriate use of health care resources (hospital facilities and equipment, medical specialists’ time, etc.). The mythology has been nurtured by the transplant researchers whose egos swell with each completed transplant. I worked with many of them for years and know from first hand experience that they measure success in short-term outcomes and the resources they can draw from the rest of the health care system.
Organ transplants do not save lives. They do temporarily extend the lives of some patients but the post-transplant life expectancy is much lower than the “normal” the transplant advocates would lead the public to believe. The negative side affects of transplantation are never mentioned by the advocates. Readers interested in real life expectancy post-transplant need only review the data on the Canadian Organ Replacement Registry web-site. The 3-year survival rate for kidney transplants is in the mid-50% range. One-fith to one-third of liver, heart and lung transplants patients do not survive five years and the draw on pharmaceuticals and other products the health care system during those years in enormous. Clearly not the “cure” the public is mislead to believe.
Unfortunately, while the transplant surgeons and anaesthetists and dozens of other health care professionals are draining the system of limited resources, other needs are overlooked because they are not as glamorous as organ transplantation. They are not the sort of thing about which TV movies are made. But they may be much more effective in terms of years of life and quality of life gained.
Transplant advocates continue to wage eloquent campaigns to increase organ donation in the face of steady or declining donor rates in Canada. I would like to think one of the reasons few Canadians donate is that they do not succumb to the myth the advocates spin. Maybe they are not comfortable with their bodies being carved-up after death to become spare parts for the use of transplant surgeons.
The resources that go into organ transplantation would be much better used to further research into the treatment and prevention of disease. Genetic/DNA research was nearly non-existent when transplants were pioneered. Now this research offers more hope than transplantation and it is time to redirect resources to where the greatest public benefit is likely to occur. Unfortunately, the Premier and health minister Smitherman have allowed themselves to succumb to the myth.
Kidney transplants may improve the quality of life for patients with end stage renal disease but they do not save lives. Transplants are an alternative to dialysis treatment - both work. Over the life of a successful transplant, kidney transplantation may be less costly than dialysis but it is no panacea. And while the transplant patient leaves behind the tedium of daily dialysis treatment, new health risks associated with anti-rejection drugs are assumed.
A mythology has been build around organ transplantation which seriously deludes the general population into believing this is an appropriate use of health care resources (hospital facilities and equipment, medical specialists’ time, etc.). The mythology has been nurtured by the transplant researchers whose egos swell with each completed transplant. I worked with many of them for years and know from first hand experience that they measure success in short-term outcomes and the resources they can draw from the rest of the health care system.
Organ transplants do not save lives. They do temporarily extend the lives of some patients but the post-transplant life expectancy is much lower than the “normal” the transplant advocates would lead the public to believe. The negative side affects of transplantation are never mentioned by the advocates. Readers interested in real life expectancy post-transplant need only review the data on the Canadian Organ Replacement Registry web-site. The 3-year survival rate for kidney transplants is in the mid-50% range. One-fith to one-third of liver, heart and lung transplants patients do not survive five years and the draw on pharmaceuticals and other products the health care system during those years in enormous. Clearly not the “cure” the public is mislead to believe.
Unfortunately, while the transplant surgeons and anaesthetists and dozens of other health care professionals are draining the system of limited resources, other needs are overlooked because they are not as glamorous as organ transplantation. They are not the sort of thing about which TV movies are made. But they may be much more effective in terms of years of life and quality of life gained.
Transplant advocates continue to wage eloquent campaigns to increase organ donation in the face of steady or declining donor rates in Canada. I would like to think one of the reasons few Canadians donate is that they do not succumb to the myth the advocates spin. Maybe they are not comfortable with their bodies being carved-up after death to become spare parts for the use of transplant surgeons.
The resources that go into organ transplantation would be much better used to further research into the treatment and prevention of disease. Genetic/DNA research was nearly non-existent when transplants were pioneered. Now this research offers more hope than transplantation and it is time to redirect resources to where the greatest public benefit is likely to occur. Unfortunately, the Premier and health minister Smitherman have allowed themselves to succumb to the myth.
