The Kidney Crisis
Hour Detroit Magazine | By Monica Mercer // Photographs by Josh Scott
Myths about organ donation and transplantation are still contaminating the real issues behind a silent health problem
Dr. Alan Koffron can conjure scene after scene from the medical TV genre where human kidneys have been integral to the plot: residents dropping them on the floor, crooked doctors profiting from organ trafficking, the wrong kidney placed in the wrong body.
Kidney transplantation â€" the most commonly performed of all transplant procedures in the world â€" ranks high on the medical dramatics scale, Koffran says, but he’s not sure why. An organ transplantation surgeon with Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Koffron has performed thousands of kidney transplants. He and the other medical professionals involved in the process across the country know how heavily regulated it is in the United States, with checks and balances so strong that rarely does a kidney transplant involve any- thing remotely attention-worthy. Like the predictable logistics of any activity performed over and over, the transplant procedure itself, Koffron says, is also relatively easy and drama-free. He compares hooking up a donated kidney with the act of “plumbing,†where you make sure you get a couple of key attachments right and you’re basically done.
By contrast, there are aspects of kidney donation so much more challenging that they rarely play out in popular culture. “It’s easier to portray the pizzazz of a kidney falling on the floor, the heartstrings being pulled, the ‘science fiction’ of it all,†Koffron says. “That doesn’t help us portray the reality; the need and the safety†involved with organ-donation issues. More importantly, Koffron says, the urban legends are continuing to upstage the deeper conversations we could be having on how to more effectively address a silent health crisis.
Kidney transplantation â€" the most commonly performed of all transplant procedures in the world â€" ranks high on the medical dramatics scale, Koffran says, but he’s not sure why. An organ transplantation surgeon with Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Koffron has performed thousands of kidney transplants. He and the other medical professionals involved in the process across the country know how heavily regulated it is in the United States, with checks and balances so strong that rarely does a kidney transplant involve any- thing remotely attention-worthy. Like the predictable logistics of any activity performed over and over, the transplant procedure itself, Koffron says, is also relatively easy and drama-free. He compares hooking up a donated kidney with the act of “plumbing,†where you make sure you get a couple of key attachments right and you’re basically done.
By contrast, there are aspects of kidney donation so much more challenging that they rarely play out in popular culture. “It’s easier to portray the pizzazz of a kidney falling on the floor, the heartstrings being pulled, the ‘science fiction’ of it all,†Koffron says. “That doesn’t help us portray the reality; the need and the safety†involved with organ-donation issues. More importantly, Koffron says, the urban legends are continuing to upstage the deeper conversations we could be having on how to more effectively address a silent health crisis.
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"You have the power to SAVE lives."
To register as a donor TODAY
In California:
www.donateLIFEcalifornia.org | www.doneVIDAcalifornia.org
Outside California:
www.organdonor.gov | www.donatelife.net
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