As a medical student I sat through assessments of liver failure patients to assess their suitability for transport. There were some particularly heartbreaking moments there, such as when a patients wife seperately said to us that she didn’t believe he was suitable because he would just waste it.
Another horrible example was a patient with fulminant liver failure secondary to Hep C. Most people in Australia contract Hep C through IV Drugs or sexual activity, but during the 80s people contracted it through contaminated blood. This patient had been at the top of the transplant list 3 times but because he developed spontaneous Bacterial Peritonitis each time he was ineligible and dropped back to the bottom. I believe he died not long after I took his history.
I’m so pleased we have free treatment for Hep C patients in Australia now.
Organ donation is a heartbreaking issue and the sample conversations of the God Committee allocating access to the first dialysis treatment is revealing (even though they’re discussing access to treatment and not transplant)
For those wondering, as I didn’t see it mentioned in the article, dialysis treatment costs approx $20-30k AUD a year (at least in Australia).
Average survival is 10 years from initiation of treatment.
A kidney transplant costs $30-40k.
In Australia there are access schemes whereby patients who may not otherwise qualify (ie obesity) have been given gastric sleeve procedures by the healthcare system in order to be eligible for a transplant, on the economic basis that $200k in dialysis is more than the $50k of an elective surgery and then transplant. Usually in these situations the donor is a family member.
The use of matching algorithms as described in this article is so valuable in terms of lives saved, but ultimately no substitute for what we need: the ability to grow new organs.
Another horrible example was a patient with fulminant liver failure secondary to Hep C. Most people in Australia contract Hep C through IV Drugs or sexual activity, but during the 80s people contracted it through contaminated blood. This patient had been at the top of the transplant list 3 times but because he developed spontaneous Bacterial Peritonitis each time he was ineligible and dropped back to the bottom. I believe he died not long after I took his history. I’m so pleased we have free treatment for Hep C patients in Australia now.
Organ donation is a heartbreaking issue and the sample conversations of the God Committee allocating access to the first dialysis treatment is revealing (even though they’re discussing access to treatment and not transplant)
For those wondering, as I didn’t see it mentioned in the article, dialysis treatment costs approx $20-30k AUD a year (at least in Australia). Average survival is 10 years from initiation of treatment.
A kidney transplant costs $30-40k. In Australia there are access schemes whereby patients who may not otherwise qualify (ie obesity) have been given gastric sleeve procedures by the healthcare system in order to be eligible for a transplant, on the economic basis that $200k in dialysis is more than the $50k of an elective surgery and then transplant. Usually in these situations the donor is a family member.
The use of matching algorithms as described in this article is so valuable in terms of lives saved, but ultimately no substitute for what we need: the ability to grow new organs.