Koreans Troup to China for Organ Transplants
A Korean-Chinese translator (left) and a Chinese nurse (center) take care of a Korean patient who underwent transplant surgery. The hospital TV shows a Korean soap opera featuring actor Bae Yong-jun.
China is drawing increasing numbers of Koreans in search of transplant organs. Facing difficulty in securing organs from donors due to a string of restrictions at home, Korean patients with terminal liver cirrhosis or renal failure are turning to the world’s most populous country for another chance at life.
As of December 2004, Korea had 5,113 patients waiting for liver transplants and 1,460 waiting for kidney transplants, according to the Korea Network for Organ Sharing (KONOS). But only 892 kidney and 644 liver transplants were performed here last year. Moreover, 81 percent of the kidneys and 90 percent of the livers were donated by patients' family members or friends. Chances of securing organs from brain-dead donors are very slim in Korea.
China Tianjin First Central Hospital southwest of Beijing is one of the biggest organ transplant centers in China, performing near 900 operations a year. The hospital charges between W60 million (US$58,326) and W70 million per liver transplant and between W20 million and W25 million per kidney transplant.
The hospital is also a magnet for Korean patients, transplanting organs into some 360-plus Korean patients last year. That is about 40 percent of all of its transplant patients. About 1,000 Koreans a year are estimated to have had organ transplants in China, according to Korean medical circles.
Last Friday 26 Korean transplant patients were occupying ordinary rooms at China Tianjin First Central and International Heart and Vein Hospital. Four others were in extensive care units, while another eight were staying in hotels nearby waiting for a bed to become available.
Building contractor Park, 45, is recuperating after getting a new liver at the end of December. He had suffered esophagus hemorrhage and cardiac paralysis ? complications from terminal liver cirrhosis. "I came here ready to die," he said. "Being able to walk like this, I feel like I’ve been given a second life."
But some patients do die. "Three or four Korean patients have died here, some following operations and others waiting for operations," said Kim Jin-il, a Korean-Chinese running a translation and catering business for Korean patients. In most cases their bereaved families receive death certificates and cremate the dead in China.
Some 80 percent of organ transplant patients are discharged with few or no problems, 15 percent suffer light complications, and 5 percent suffer serious complications or die, an official of China Tianjin said. Korean patients include many academics, medical doctors, corporate executives and senior civil servants.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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