St Nicholas Hospital, one of the health facilities that perform organ transplants in Nigeria, has said it does not have other mechanisms to detect under-dealings that drives organ donation except for a panel probe usually held before a transplant occurs.
This follows a $20 million organ trade scam involving a commercial donor, Eric Nwoko, 42, and a brother of his former employer who offered compensation for his kidney donation in 2018.
But five years later, the donor is stranded in poverty, without the required funds to sustain the life after transplant.
This has raised questions about Nigerian hospitals’ performing due diligence before transplants or whether they are simply complicit, unwittingly enmeshed in illegal organ trading happening under the radar.
Ifeoma Okafor, head of marketing and communications at the hospital told Businessday that in the case of Nwoko, his consent was secured and the management didn’t have reasons to doubt that the donation was a selfless gesture to help the recipient stay alive.
“For us consent is key and the success of the transplant is important. If the donor changes their mind on the day the transplant should take place, we withdraw. We don’t know about agreements people make outside the hospital or go to patients villages to find out if the donor is a relative as they claim,” Okafor.
Our emails are full of calls from organ traders
She also said that the hospital faces a barrage of emails from people willing to sell their organs daily, indicating that there is an active supply and demand market despite laws that stipulate that human organs should not be traded as a commodity.
Apart from looking out for donor and recipient suitability and informed consent, a hospital panel is also expected to be mindful of the vulnerability of both the donor and recipient, and take steps to protect their rights and interests.
But growing cases of organ trade has shown that most hospitals don’t step in this regard.
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Nwoko who hails from Abia State worked for a company in Ikeja, when his boss assigned him to drive his ailing brother to the St. Nicholas Hospital, Lagos Island, for dialysis while he (boss) was outside the country, according to Vanguard.
“When he returned to the country, he (the boss) appreciated me for taking his brother to the hospital and informed me that his brother’s kidney had failed and that in the next week, he might lose his life. He asked if I could donate one of my kidneys to him.
“Thereafter, he told me to kneel to pray for me, and in the process, he rubbed a liquid substance on my head. He told me that he would give me $20 million, buy a house for me in America, and connect me to his rich friend in America where I would be driving big cars.
“Thereafter, he called his brother to inform him that I had agreed to donate one of my kidneys to him. They took me to the hospital where I did many tests and the doctors said my kidney matched his brother’s.
“I was admitted for three days and on the agreed day, the operation was done. They gave me some medicine. But since 2018 till date, I have not been receiving treatment.
“A week after my boss rented an apartment for me, he directed me to resume work in the office, and that I would be paid N70,000 monthly. He warned that anytime I failed to come to work over health issues, he would deduct N30,000 from my salary. Even when I complained that I was weak, he would shout at me, saying I could survive with one kidney,” Nwoko explained.
The matter has been registered with police and arrests have been made.
Read also: Quack doctor who harvested patient’s kidney trained as nurse – NMA
The law and organ donation
According to the National Health Act 2014, it is an offense for a person who has donated tissue, blood, or blood products to receive any form of financial or other reward for such donation, except for the reimbursement of reasonable costs incurred by him or her to provide such donations.
A person who contravenes is liable on conviction to a fine of N100,000 or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding one year or to both.
Even for organs obtained from a deceased person, the procedure for use is not arbitrary.
The National Tertiary Health Institutions Standards Committee has to review the procedural measures before approving such organ transplants. Ignoring the procedures to charge a fee for a human organ attracts a minimum of five years imprisonment without the option of a fine on conviction, the Act states.
The Act also demands that anyone willing to donate an organ in death has to include it in a will or in a document signed with at least two competent witnesses or in a written statement made in the presence of two competent witnesses.
And if the donor decides to rethink before removal for transplant, the Act provides for intentional revocation in the same way the donation was made.
Olugbenga Awobusuyi, president, Nigerian Association of Nephrology and the Transplant Society of Nigeria told Businessday earlier that “It is not appropriate to offer or demand financial reward for giving out an organ. That means you are turning that organ into a commodity like you can buy a piece of chocolate. Organs are not for sale. And that is what the declaration of Instabul and also the health act of many countries is against.”
