{"id":8937,"date":"2024-11-12T09:17:47","date_gmt":"2024-11-12T09:17:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/?p=8937"},"modified":"2024-11-12T09:17:51","modified_gmt":"2024-11-12T09:17:51","slug":"people-are-paying-%c2%a24m-or-trading-apartments-for-kidneys-amid-dialysis-crisis-renal-patients-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/?p=8937","title":{"rendered":"People are paying \u00a24m or trading apartments for kidneys amid dialysis crisis \u2013 Renal Patients\u2019 president."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The President of the Renal Patients Association, Baffour Kojo Ahenkorah, has highlighted the extreme financial sacrifices kidney disease patients in Ghana are making to afford life-saving treatment.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a candid interview , he revealed that some Ghanaians, facing high dialysis costs, are now turning to desperate measures, such as paying millions of cedis or even exchanging property for a kidney.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">His comments follow Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia\u2019s announcement that starting December 1, 2024, the government will provide free dialysis treatment under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to alleviate the financial burden on kidney patients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Reflecting on his journey, Mr Ahenkorah shared that his dialysis costs over the past decade have been financially crippling.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIf I\u2019m to calculate the 10 years now, the money I\u2019ve spent, I could have done a transplant easily with that money,\u201d he said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cBut the point is, I don\u2019t have the bulk money to go and do it. So at least then, if I get \u00a21000, I go and do a session and see if I can get bulk money. Day in, day out, the time is running. So it\u2019s all about the money.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to Mr Ahenkorah, many patients are trapped in a cycle of paying for dialysis without ever being able to save enough for a kidney transplant, which is now available at Korle Bu and Bank hospitals in Ghana.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIf this thing was there for the last 10 years, probably I could have saved enough or the money that I have, I would have used it to do my transplant, and I\u2019m off,\u201d he explained, expressing hope that the upcoming free dialysis treatment might help patients save towards transplants in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When asked about the availability of kidney donors, Mr Ahenkorah shed light on a troubling reality: people in Ghana are quietly selling their kidneys to survive.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe need to get it, because now, for somebody even to give this kidney to, people are selling it. People are doing it indirectly. In Ghana, people are doing it indirectly,\u201d he disclosed.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"ose-youtube ose-uid-a565e6866d69d99647572664bbbdc6ec ose-embedpress-responsive\" style=\"width:400px; height:400px; max-height:400px; max-width:100%; display:inline-block;\" data-embed-type=\"Youtube\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowFullScreen=\"true\" width=\"400\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7QIGpt4iDEc?feature=oembed&color=red&rel=0&controls=1&start=&end=&fs=0&iv_load_policy=0&autoplay=0&mute=0&modestbranding=0&cc_load_policy=1&playsinline=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; encrypted-media;accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;gyroscope;picture-in-picture clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen referrerpolicy=\"origin\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He explained that the traditional route of receiving a kidney donation from a family member is becoming less common as economic hardship pushes some people to offer their kidneys for sale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cNow, the country is hot; people need money. So if I can live on one kidney, why not?\u201d Mr Ahenkorah stated.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cSome people don\u2019t mind. If they check and you are compatible, that\u2019s it. Some people are selling it for about \u00a23 million or \u00a24 million. Once you do the labs and you are compatible, it\u2019s ready; they are willing to give it to you. Somebody will say, \u2018Get me a two-bedroom apartment, let me go and stay there, and I\u2019ll give you one of my kidneys.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mr Ahenkorah highlighted that the costs don\u2019t stop at purchasing the kidney. Patients must then pay an additional $25,000 for the transplant surgery.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cSo you buy the \u00a23 million or \u00a24 million kidney, and then you have to now go and pay for the procedure of about $25,000,\u201d he noted, stressing the double financial burden that many Ghanaians simply cannot bear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Reflecting on the ongoing expenses associated with dialysis, Mr Ahenkorah pointed out that he has spent enormous amounts on medication alone.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIf I\u2019m to sit down and calculate the Erythropoietin injections alone that I have bought, and the BP medication that I have bought, that money, I could have done transplant way back,\u201d he said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But due to a lack of funds, he\u2019s been forced to continue paying for dialysis sessions, balancing the costs of treatment with his responsibilities as a parent.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI have children. You have to take care of them, you know, in between the dialysis,\u201d he added, underscoring the toll kidney disease takes on patients and their families.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The President of the Renal Patients Association, Baffour Kojo Ahenkorah, has highlighted the extreme financial sacrifices kidney disease patients in Ghana are making to afford life-saving treatment.\u00a0 In a candid interview , he revealed that some Ghanaians, facing high dialysis costs, are now turning to desperate measures, such as paying millions of cedis or even [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8938,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,13],"tags":[2903],"class_list":["post-8937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-news","category-health","tag-dialysis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8937"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8937\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8939,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8937\/revisions\/8939"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}