KIDNEY TRANSPLANT

TORONTO- FILIPINO CANADIANS afflicted with renal diseases seeking kidney transplant or treatment outside Canada can sigh relief as Canada Aid Relief Project or CARP and a Medical Tourism representative announced during a news conference held at a popular Filipino restaurant in Toronto recently.
Dr Francisco Portugal, a long time medical practitioner in Ontario, and founder of CARP with Nick Paman, acting executive director and MedTour representative from Manila and Danilo Barrido,a kidney patient met with Filipino newsmen at the Aristokrat restaurant, a popular newsmen’s hub in Toronto City.

During the conference, Dr Portugal presented Danilo Barrido, a 56-year old local businessman from Hamilton who has been suffering from kidney ailment for more than three years sought the assistance of CARP which assisted in getting funding from the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) for kidney transplant in the Philippines. Dr Portugal made personal representation for Barrido with St. Lukes hospital because of its proven capability on kidney transplant. He pointed out that Phillipines is noted as having high success rate among other countries in the world. Portugal said that CARP also donated $500 for his operation. Barrido reportedly got a kidney donor from a close relative in the Philippines who was willing to fly to Canada but was reportedly barred due to his failure to present his financial viability to secure his stay in Canada. However the OHIP finally approved his dire wish to be operated in the Philippines.

Meanwhile, Nick Paman said that OHIP assures it will pay in full for health services outside Canada if : (1) The patient gets written authorization from the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care before the treatment is given.(2) The treatment is done in Ontario but for the kidney transplant,he needs to travel outside Canada to avoid a delay that may cause death or medically significant irreversible tissue damage.

Paman said that the average waiting time for kidney transplant in Canada is 5-10 years due to lack of compatible donors. Fortunately for Barrido who found one is scheduled to undergo organ transplant in the Philippines in a few weeks. He said that at least 400 more Filipinos out of 1,500 are in the waiting list according to the Canadian Organ Replacement Registry (CORR) in 2007.