Dirty lies about "black transplantologists"
Fiction and transplantologySergey Gauthier, Chief Freelance Transplant Specialist of the Ministry of Health and Social Development of the Russian Federation, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Professor
The day before, a book by Mr. Troshin A.Z. came to my desk. This is a novel in 4 parts, published under the heading "Literary and artistic publication". In this novel, transplantology serves as a field for the author's detective-criminal fantasies, and in the preface it is written that this is "fiction".
The appearance of this book coincided with the publication of the same author in the newspaper "KP". The content of the article is similar to the book, but it is placed under the heading "Journalistic investigation". Is this a mistake or an accident? And shouldn't the information published in the central newspaper be checked? And why is such an area of modern medicine as organ transplantation considered in a scandalous context with completely different, unrelated problems of stem cells, termination of pregnancy, etc.?
After carefully reading the publication, I was convinced: it is impossible to make claims on the essence of the facts presented, since there are no facts in the publication of the newspaper. I declare responsibly: the author, represented by the newspaper as a transplant doctor, has not been one for a long time and has not been in contact with this field of medicine for at least 20 years. What he writes is not information, but a set of "horror stories" of criminal content. However, the author will not be held accountable for slander: each "fact" is accompanied by a phrase like "this is quite real" and "this is possible."
As the chief specialist-transplantologist of the Ministry of Health and Social Development of the Russian Federation and as the director of the Federal State University Federal Scientific Center of Transplantology and Artificial Organs named after V.I.Shumakov, I often have to speak in the media, participate in public discussion of topical and painful problems associated with organ transplantation. Actually, I consider this to be no less important part of my business than medical, scientific or, for example, administrative activities.
Now we are seeing an increase in the number of organ transplantation operations, the development of regional transplant centers. In 2009, 1060 organ transplantation operations were performed in Russia. Of course, this is extremely small compared to the need of our population for these operations, but still it is more than in 2008, and significantly more than in 2007. This became possible only in the conditions of the gradual formation of a civilized attitude to the problem on the part of the medical community and the whole society, as well as thanks to the constant attention from the Ministry of Health and Social Development of the Russian Federation and personally Minister T.A. Golikova.
Only in our center in 2009 were performed: 31 heart transplants, 85 liver transplants, 101 kidney transplants, 3 small intestine transplants. I am reliably aware that none of these operations are (and could not be) connected with criminal events.
Modern clinical transplantology solves the problems of not only saving an incurable patient, but also achieving long-term survival of the patient, his medical and social rehabilitation. Several thousand citizens in our country have been living a full life for decades after heart, kidney, and liver transplants; they create families, and healthy children are born to them.
The publication in Komsomolskaya Pravda should be regarded as another attempt to discredit transplantology in our country. The promotion of such publications in the press causes obvious harm to the cause of saving our people, can deprive many people of a chance for life, and society may not count worthy and talented of our fellow citizens.
By the way, I still found one reliable fact in the publication. Indeed, organ transplantation often occurs at night. Why? Yes, because this is a very painstaking, multi-stage and many-hour work, in which dozens of people participate, united in several teams of specialists, and which is not regulated by the time of day.
Organ transplantation is a difficult way to save the terminally ill.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru04.06.2010