Government Gives Green Light to Kidney Racket
The government has dropped the charges against 13 hospitals after a four month investigation into the kidney racket citing "the welfare of the patients" waiting for organ transplants as the reason. In the last two years over 2000 the hospitals have preformed over 2000 illegal kidney transplants and have colluded with criminal gangs of organ brokers to steal organs from the state's poor and destitute. I have been covering the story for WIRED News and in this blog since the story first broke and this seems an appropriate coda for my investigation in light of the rampant corruption and lack of ethics that permeates ever corner of the medical administration here.
The Directorate of Medical Services, the organization in charge of the investigation, is trying what it calls a "humanitarian approach" that favors wealthy people with renal failure over the poor who must sacrifice their own health for another person's treatment.
Dropping the charges means opening up the flood gates to more illegal surgeries as the DMS has effectively admitted that it will not enforce the rule of law even under extreme instances of medical negligence. The DMS has let the worst offenders completely off the hook (Devaki Hospital, and Madurai Meenakshi Mission Hospital) after asking them to abide by the rules in the future.
This excerpt from the Indian Express yesterday says it all:
"The hospitals had committed only simple mistakes like discrepancies in forms and HLA matching. We have kept in mind the suffering of patients waiting for transplants. Many of them are on dialysis ans need to undergo surgery. The hospitals have agreed to follow the rules and regulations. They will submit an undertaking and obey the rules [in the future]" an official said. (My guess is that the official was Bava Fathurudeen who I have written about earlier)
This is an outright lie that goes to show exactly how high the corruption rises in the administration. A month ago I went to the police and told them I had hard evidence on Devaki hospital that they were preforming illegal kidney transplants. I had uncovered records of the procedure with signatures of doctors (Thiagarajan and Reddy) on one person in Ernavoor and if I searched a little more I could easily have uncovered hundreds of similar documents. However when I went to the police station the Assistant Commissioner only looked at me blankly and said "we are not interested in prosecuting the case."
For Bava Fathurudeen to say that hospitals have only made "simple mistakes" is a bald faced like. The hospitals have knowingly been providing illegal services and have gotten the government to tow the line with them. It's already an established fact that the ethic board that approves transplants knows that 90% of the donors who apply for permission to undergo a transplant are unrelated and being paid by brokers.
So in light of the now defacto legalization of unrelated live-donor transplants why doesn't the government take the more radical step and push for formal legalization? Call me crazy, but I don't think that dozens of hospitals who have been actively pursing criminal transplants are going to stop business as usual after only a slap on their wrists. The honor system isn't going to keep things in check.
Labels: kidney racket
posted by Scott Carney @ 6:28 AM
8 comments
8 Comments:
When all else fails, why not the courts? A PIL? And you'd have enough evidence to back it up.
Hey Scott,
That's not true. At least, not yet true. Check with the authorities.
It will take another week to fix the formalities that are necessary to revoke the licences.
cheers!
Ramya
The authorities dropped charges on the 13 hospitals under investigation, the two hospitals that stand a chance of closing are very minor offenders, not the ones that have been doing routine illegal transplants for the last ten years.
That the authorities haven't gone after Devaki hospital completely baffles me. I smell the stink of corruption and nothing less.
sCOTT, I don't know if you are talking to me, you haven't specified. But I will respond all the same.
It seems you've not quite got the sense I was trying to articulate. I did not say anything about the process being fair or corruption free.
On a point of technicality, which you should admit is important to journalists, the authorities have not YET dropped charges. Like I already said, it is only a matter of time, but it was certainly not so on the day you posted.
The authorities have not gone after Devaki?! You single that out because you can see it in Chennai. I know of greater violators in Coimbatore and Madurai, a hospital in Tiruchy actually got a patient to go to court to ask that its suspension be revoked. I'm not Devaki's supporter. In fact I've more evidence of its shabby administration than you can imagine, but I don't think anyone should hound one organisation and spare the rest.
The way I look at it, you do one illegal transplantation or you do a 100, you have violated the law. And everyone must be brought to book.
Dear Ramya,
My source for the information that the charges were dropped was an article in Indian Express. They could have been inaccurate. But even as you say, pretty soon they will drop the charges.
I agree that authorities should go after all the violators. But if they were only to choose a few, shouldn't' they go after the most egregious ones? If you know of other hospitals in Coiambatore then why aren't you writing stinging Op-Eds in the Hindu editorial pages?
The Indian media is letting this slide.
s
I totally agree with Mr. Rat.
St. Thomas Hospital, is one majore hospital who operates 100's of patients every month who buys kidneys from brokers.
A relationship document is made by the doctor @ of 1 lac per document.
need further information on Broker, you can mail me at badhal.pawan@gmail.com
Scott, India has the organ transplantation act which prohibits sale or trading in human organs. Hospitals which conduct organ transplantation have to secure permission from the 'appropriate authority' specified in the act and all donors and donnees who are unrelated shall have to get their transplantation approved by an 'authorisation committee' which has to ensure that there is no financial transaction between the parties. but trading in organs is going on merrily with the connivance of hospitals, doctors,relatives of patients, suthorities and brokers. those at the receiving end are the poor and illiterate donors who are forced to part with their organs, sometimes even without their knowledge, for a pittance. since the law prohibits sale of organs and even awards 5 years imprisonment to donors who have accepted money, they keep quiet. in 2002, in kerala, after news reports mentioned that more than 30 people from neighbouring villages at vellimattom in remote idukki district who had become kidney donors at baby memorial hospital and national hospital in distant calicut complained of being lured and cheated by brokers, the then Opposition leader and present chief minister of mr.v.s.achuthanandan visited the remote places, met the victims and brought the issue to the notice of authroities. police investigation was launched and the licences issued to these hospitals supended. but the case could not be followed up as donors developed cold feet at the prospect of going to prison.
transplantation between unrelated donors in legal in india, once approved by the authorisation commitee. what the law has to do is to legalize acceptance of compensation for such transplants by donors and ensure that money is paid to them in a foolproof manner eliminating touts and brokers.this could eradicate many of the evils plaguing our organ transplant procedures.
i agree with Shaji. govt should legalize acceptance of compensation for such transplants by donors. if the donor wants to sell his organ without any threat to his life, why shouldnt it be allowed. you see the donor is helping the recepient lve a longer life....
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