Twelve years ago Sieunarine Ganar paid US$20,000 for the kidney he currently has inside his body.
Ganar, 67, says it was a “steal of a deal.”
When Ganar was diagnosed with renal failure and required a kidney transplant, the National Organ Transplant Unit (NOTU) of the Ministry of Health was not yet established in this country and therefore the surgery was not free.
The private hospitals at that time valued a kidney transplant at $450,000 and any person hoping to get a kidney needed to produce their own donor.
So in an effort to find a kidney Ganar placed his name on the waiting list for a transplant in New York.
Ganar was number 40,000 on that waiting list.
Three Sundays ago, Guardian Media Ltd launched Gift of Life, a campaign to promote public awareness about organ donation and transplant with the aim of encouraging citizens to augment this country’s donor pool.
This week we take a look at the circumstances Ganar had to endure in order to get another lease on life.
It hit me like a truck
Ganar worked at Hilton Trinidad for over 40 years.
“I was talking good, good one day and then all of a sudden the next day I got really sick,” Ganar said.
Ganar visited his family doctor and was told that his immune system was low.
He had also lost his appetite.
Ganar said he eventually went to St Augustine Private Hospital where he was informed that he had renal failure.
“When I went to St Augustine Private Hospital the doctor told me I had kidney failure. That was like a train bounce me because I knew about it, I knew about people who had kidney failure and so forth and I felt like I just did not want to live anymore,” Ganar said.
After the initial blow caused by the diagnosis, Ganar said he “decided to take it one day at a time.”
Ganar started dialysis at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex in Mt Hope.
However, Ganar said he did not feel any better following his dialysis treatment.
Ganar was hit with a price tag of $450,000 when he enquired about the transplant from private hospitals.
His children opted to donate their kidney to him but Ganar advised them against it.
“They were willing to give me a kidney but I told them, ‘No, I lived my life and I don’t want to jeopardise you all’,” he said.
Overseas option explored
Ganar decided to try his options overseas.
He flew to Jackson Heights Hospital in New York.
“I dialysed for almost a month and then I was warded in hospital for 42 days because I got a bad injection and could not walk properly,” he said.
Ganar was listed as number 40,000 on the hospital’s waiting list for a kidney transplant.
“I said I cannot wait so long. I said I will die so I came back to Trinidad,” Ganar said.
While he was at that hospital, however, one of his friends told him about a kidney transplant option in Pakistan.
He was also told about a man in La Romaine, south Trinidad, who had survived a kidney transplant in Pakistan.
Ganar said he called the man from La Romaine.
The man gave him a number to call in Pakistan.
Ganar made the call.
Ganar and his wife, Angela, left Trinidad and Tobago on Carnival Tuesday of 2004.
After some 21 days waiting at the National Hospital at Lahore in Pakistan, Ganar was told that a compatible donor was found.
He paid US$20,000.
Angela took a bank loan to fund the surgery, Ganar said.
This price included the hospital stay, the surgery and three meals for both Angela and himself.
Ganar said he was provided a private room where he slept on a surgical bed while Angela slept on a separate bed.
“At the time the package cost US$20,000 and that included 21 days hospital stay, three meals. It was a steal of a deal,” Ganar said.
The entire thing including the airfare to and from Pakistan ended up costing less than what he would have paid at a private hospital in Trinidad and Tobago.
Ganar, who was 55 years old at the time, said he received a kidney from a 26-year-old young man.
“They said the donor was so compatible it was as if a brother gave it to me,”
The transplant was done on March 25, 2004.
Ganar said he is happy he was able to get through with the surgery and 12 years later still be doing well.
Ganar said he is pleased to see the advances the country has made so far with respect to kidney transplants in this country including it being offered free.
He has called on people to sign up to become donors and help others who may be suffering.
“I would advise if they become a donor that it will be very helpful because you never know you could be here today and get in an accident tomorrow. You can save someone’s life,” Ganar said.
Pakistan destination for “transplant tourism”
Under the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act 2010, the sale of human organs for transplants is prohibited in Pakistan.
Before the law was passed in 2010, however, Pakistan was described as a destination for “transplant tourism” with hundreds of renal failure patients from around the world travelling to that country to purchase kidneys.
According to Dr Mirza Naqi Zafar, the general secretary of the Transplantation Society of Pakistan (TSP), in an article published in The Express Tribune, before 2010 more than 1,500 foreigners were travelling to Pakistan for transplants each year.