The Millman report tracks transplant costs and statistics every three years, data gathered from a variety of sources. It focuses solely on the recipient, which is unfortunate because I’d like to see comparable living donor charges, hospital stays, demographics and the like. The authors’ lapse is just another example of how living donors aren’t really considered people, but medical supply for transplant recipients.
Below are the most common indications (diagnoses) for kidney and liver transplants:
And for kidney-pancreas transplants:
Just the other day someone in a social networking group asked what organs could be harvested from a living donor. When I provided the following response, another individual who I gleaned works for an OPO (aka organ procurement organization; in other words “donate life!”) tried to argue the matter. When source material was given, she backtracked in a verbose justification, but never admitted her error.
And to think, her job is to supposedly ‘educate’ folks on their donation options.
Anyway, here are the organs taken from living donors from 2006-2009:
Every wondered how much a transplant surgeon generates for one procedure?
Kidney – $18,500
Liver – $46,600.
And that’s just for the recipient. No wonder everyone is in such a hurry to go to transplant.
ETA: The above are JUST the surgeon’s take away, not the entire charge for the surgery. The total estimated billing charges for a kidney transplant is $262,900. A liver transplant is $577,100.