AS bleak as the facts and figures surrounding chronic kidney disease in Jamaica are, it gets worse, said Dr Barton, a type of kidney disease gladiator who heads the Caribbean Institute of Nephrology.

“Some children born with conditions leading to kidney disease and who should be dialysed at no later than six months, based on world standards, are still on the machines up to 10 or 12 years in Jamaica. This is unacceptable,” he declared impatiently.

That dire predicament is attributable to the inability to find organ donors, in a context where Jamaicans don’t like to remove the organs from the body of their deceased loved ones before burial or cremation.

Although Jamaica has been doing transplantation using deceased kidney donors since the 1970s, the number of operations has been disappointingly low. A mere five transplantations were done last year before the novel coronavirus pandemic hit, but none since. There were three or four done in the previous year.

A breakdown of the five transplantations last year shows that a father gave a kidney to his daughter; a mother to her son; a son to his father; and a husband to his wife. One was not identified.

Against the tide, Dr Barton and a dedicated band of people are working to encourage Jamaicans to donate the organs of deceased loved ones but they remain undaunted, hopeful that as awareness grows, people will see the beauty in saving the lives of their fellowmen.

“Given the generous nature of Jamaicans, if more people knew that donating two kidneys from one deceased person could potentially keep two other people alive, they would do it,” said the optimistic Barton.

“One should hear the great joy expressed by persons who have donated. They tell me of the most wonderful feeling of knowing this lovely thing they have done, using their loved ones’ organs instead of wasting it and leaving it to deteriorate.”

Dr Barton noted that voluntary donation of organs is most critical because, under international law, it is not permissible to buy or sell organs, which is regarded as trafficking and which carries heavy penalties.

— Desmond Allen