Distribution: Danish Doc Production and Journeyman Pictures.
Kidney on Ice looks at organ trafficking from a variety of perspectives, exploring the tragic stories of people selling their organs and those who desperately need a transplant. The different issues around organ transplantation are also highlighted by interviews with professionals in the field.
In close cooperation with Moldovan journalist Alina Radu; Anja Dalhoff also examines the role played by the criminal network behind this heartless trade and a former policeman is interviewed in prison, where he is now serving 10 years for organ trafficking.
The film also describes how unscrupulous, surgeons in Austria and Turkey perform secret illegal operations on living donors from European countries.In her classic, thought provoking style Anja Dalhoff tells the story of two Moldovan men that have sold a kidney and also two Danish kidney patients waiting desperately for a kidney transplant.
It has been nearly two months since Andrei had to leave his small sons aged six, nine and thirteen behind, in a small Moldovan village. They must fend for themselves, while he works as a laborer in Moscow. Two years previously, he sold a kidney to make ends meet, but hospital expenses for his dying wife ate up the extra cash fast, so work abroad is now the only possible solution.
Mads is a familiar figure at his local hospital in Copenhagen, where he has learnt to use the hospital dialysis machine, four times a week. Mads could raise 65.000 euro to buy a kidney on the black market and undergo an illegal operation abroad, but has decided to resist the temptation.62 000 euro of this money would have gone into the traffickers pockets. Andrei, for example only received 3000 euro
The International perspectives are highlighted by clips from Austria, Rumania, U.K and Spain illustrating the glaring contrast in different countries strategies and laws. For example, all Austrian citizens are assumed to have given consent to have their organs legally transplanted, while in Spain teams of specially trained doctors, counsel families in intensive care units and actively encourage them to give consent to permit doctors to remove organs.
In Denmark where no such strategies are in place, only 50 % of families permit organ transplants involving dead or dying relatives, while in Spain 85% give their permission.
The protagonists are:
Andrei from Moldova one of Europe’s poorest countries, where 25% of the work force have immigrated and 30% live for less than 250 Euro per month. Andrei sold his kidney to provide for his families basic needs. However, the money was soon used up on medical expenses for his dying wife and providing for the whole family. He now has to work on a building site in Moscow leaving his three young sons to fend for themselves. Like many children in Moldova, the social and psychological consequences of this situation are tragic.
Mikail is 32 and having sold his kidney six years ago, is now unable to work due to complications and chronic pain caused by lack of pre and post operative care. Soon after the operation, he was dumped on a public bus and subjected to a grueling, journey, without essential prescription pain killers back to Moldova.
Mads is 32 and one of six hundred, seriously ill patients in Denmark, waiting for a kidney transplant. He knows that each year that passes increases his risk of dying. The cold truth is that in fact, his chances of survival dwindle by 20% each year. With great courage, he describes the interminable wait with a mixture of anger, hope, anxiety and deep sadness.
Anja who is 34, has been in dialysis since she was twelve, but has also experienced twelve years without dialysis. This was the result of a successful kidney transplant from a 40 year old man who died in a car accident. Unfortunately, she had to start up on dialysis again and we follow her through her latest and now critical transplant.
Alina is 19 years old and due to limited hospital resources and the fact that she cannot afford private treatment in Moldova, only receives dialysis twice a week. Unable to afford even transport to and from the hospital and with zero possibilities for a transplant, Alina in order to survive has to live permanently in the hospital, her condition deteriorating day by day.
The Austrian surgeon Dr. Ferdinand Mühbacker explains how he was duped into performing an illegal organ transplant. The traffickers successfully coached the donor, so he was able to convince the hospital staff that he was in the same family as the receiver, despite the fact that he only spoke Rumanian and the receiver was Israeli.
Marin Strungaru from Moldova is a former policeman who made a deal with organ traffickers to swap his own kidney for a liver transplant for his son. His son died and Marin was then tempted into a corrupt cooperation with the organ traffickers and is now serving a 10 year sentence.
Timothy Statham is the articulate, impassioned, spokesman for the National Kidney Federation in UK.
In the English Kidney Federation, we have calculated that kidney transplantation is a much cheaper treatment solution than dialysis. Every time one speaks with a politician about how money can be saved, he sits up and takes notice.”
European facts:
September 2008
- 40.000 E.U. citizens are waiting for an organ transplant.
- 9.200 U.K. citizens are waiting for an organ.
- 459 U.K. citizens died while waiting for an organ
- U.K donor rate is 12,9 per million citizens.
- Spain donor rate is 34,3 per million citizens
- Rumania donor rate is 1 per million citizens
- Denmark 11,5 per million citizens
- Austria 25,2 per million citizens
- Germany 15,3
- Belgium 27,1
- Netherland 12,8
The European parliament is focusing on the subject in December 2008, where the film will be showed.
Distribution: Kidney on Ice will be premiered in the Autumn of 2008.