bloodrayne
01-13-2007, 12:09 AM
I Sold My Kidney To Buy A TV
As Mariana Todorova stares at the ugly scar running down her side, her eyes fill with tears.
It is an agonising reminder of how organ traders tricked her into selling her kidney.
Now Mariana is ill and ashamed at being conned into losing her organ for just £689.
Her story highlights the terrible human price of the trade in body parts fuelled by the internet.
Last night Mariana, 27, said: “I wanted to buy a home and clothes for my two children. All I got was a colour TV. We have nothing. I was desperate but I was tricked.
“I hear I could have got 100 times more money for my kidney. How could I have been so stupid?”
Mariana — married to builder Georgy — added: “I’m terrified now that my other kidney might fail.
“I feel much weaker since the operation — we live in a fourth floor flat and I feel so tired walking up the stairs that I have to keep stopping.
“Every day I look down at the eight-inch scar and I’m reminded I sold my kidney. I have cried and cried with frustration.”
According to the unscrupulous dealer who sold Mariana’s kidney, the organ went to a British woman in her forties called Susan.
Susan and other desperately ill Westerners who buy organs on the black market pay as much as £100,000 each for a transplant.
Mariana is one of an ever-growing number of victims preyed on by organ traders who are selling body parts to the wealthy.
The trade is so lucrative, people are even being murdered for their organs.
The donors do not make much money — the big bucks go to the criminals who organise the trade.
Many so-called transplant tourists travel to nations such as India, Pakistan and Turkey for surgery because it is legal there.
Mariana was lured by organ dealer Anelia Jekova to a clinic in Istanbul, Turkey, where she went under the knife in November, 2004.
Anelia was a neighbour in her poverty-hit village of Lisy Vrah in Bulgaria. Mariana says she was promised £1,500 but only received £689. She was one of six victims procured by Anelia.
Just four days after her operation she was back at home but had to move because of hostility in the village following the transplant.
The family now live in a rented flat in Varna, having also been forced out of lodgings they found with Mariana’s parents in Kozyak, near Lisy Vrah.
Roma gipsy Mariana had risked her life because she was desperate to buy a new home for herself, Georgy and their two children — Galin, eight, and Violetta, five.
Speaking through a translator she told me: “I was approached by Anelia who told me that selling a kidney was easy money."
“She showed me the scar where she had had her own kidney removed and promised me $3,000 (around £1,500) if I sold mine.
“She was very convincing and I desperately needed the money to give my children a life."
“We have nothing and I thought that with the money I could at least give them something."
“Anelia and a driver took me in a car across the border into Turkey. We got to Istanbul and I was taken to a hotel then the clinic. I felt very scared."
“I was told to read and sign a document but it was in a language I didn’t understand. I signed it anyway."
“Soon afterwards I had a jab in the arm and that was that."
“I woke up feeling that something was missing inside me."
“I never met Susan but I was told we were a match because we are both blood group O."
“After, we went to a hotel and another woman stuffed an envelope of cash in Anelia’s pocket."
“She gave me around half the money I was due. I felt sick — but what could I do?"
“Then it was back to my home. The whole thing took four days."
“I bought a colour TV and some trainers and jeans for the children — and that was it. The money was gone and now I feel such a fool.”
Farmer Marincho Yordanov, 58, Mariana’s former neighbour in the farming community of Lisy Vrah, said: “This is the sale of human flesh. It is rich people buying body parts from poor people who can barely afford to feed themselves."
“It’s not right.”
Mariana’s husband Georgy, 29, makes less than £100 a month as a builder. He said: “We lived for a while with Mariana’s family but people were laughing at us."
“We had had to move and now we feel shame. I struggle to support my family every month.”
Anelia Jekova, 37, is in Sliven Prison, where she is serving a four-year term for selling the kidneys of six neighbours.
The hard-faced blonde was arrested with her husband and an accomplice in 2005 and pleaded guilty to dealing in body parts.
She said: “I sold my own kidney. I felt OK afterwards so I thought why not help other people sell theirs? I needed the cash — but I was conned out of money by the contact in Istanbul. The buyers were Canadian, German and two British people, I remember that."
“The woman Mariana’s kidney went to was called Susan — a British woman, a nice woman around 40."
“Now I share a stinking cell with five other women. The toilet is just a bucket on the floor."
“My life is miserable in this prison and my daughter is in care, which makes me so sad. But I feel that some good has come out of it all — we did save this Susan’s life.”
NHS figures show that more than 8,000 Brits are waiting for an organ transplant, but fewer than 3,000 are carried out each year.
Last year more than 400 people died waiting for surgery.
A 2002 survey at Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital revealed that 29 NHS patients nationwide had bought a kidney and had them transplanted abroad.
In more than half those cases, the kidney failed — and one in three of the patients died.
There are 6,190 people in Britain on the NHS waiting list for a kidney transplant.
Surgeon Keith Rigg, from the British Transplant Society, said there was a risk of death for donors like Mariana. He told The Sun last night: “We condemn the sale of organs and transplant tourism completely."
“It’s a very bad idea for the patient and the donor."
“Both end up dealing with criminals as well as doctors who may not be properly qualified.”
Mariana says she often thinks about the British woman who received her kidney.
“I feel proud to have saved Susan’s life and know part of me is with her,” she explained. “But she has a life now — what about me?”
As Mariana Todorova stares at the ugly scar running down her side, her eyes fill with tears.
It is an agonising reminder of how organ traders tricked her into selling her kidney.
Now Mariana is ill and ashamed at being conned into losing her organ for just £689.
Her story highlights the terrible human price of the trade in body parts fuelled by the internet.
Last night Mariana, 27, said: “I wanted to buy a home and clothes for my two children. All I got was a colour TV. We have nothing. I was desperate but I was tricked.
“I hear I could have got 100 times more money for my kidney. How could I have been so stupid?”
Mariana — married to builder Georgy — added: “I’m terrified now that my other kidney might fail.
“I feel much weaker since the operation — we live in a fourth floor flat and I feel so tired walking up the stairs that I have to keep stopping.
“Every day I look down at the eight-inch scar and I’m reminded I sold my kidney. I have cried and cried with frustration.”
According to the unscrupulous dealer who sold Mariana’s kidney, the organ went to a British woman in her forties called Susan.
Susan and other desperately ill Westerners who buy organs on the black market pay as much as £100,000 each for a transplant.
Mariana is one of an ever-growing number of victims preyed on by organ traders who are selling body parts to the wealthy.
The trade is so lucrative, people are even being murdered for their organs.
The donors do not make much money — the big bucks go to the criminals who organise the trade.
Many so-called transplant tourists travel to nations such as India, Pakistan and Turkey for surgery because it is legal there.
Mariana was lured by organ dealer Anelia Jekova to a clinic in Istanbul, Turkey, where she went under the knife in November, 2004.
Anelia was a neighbour in her poverty-hit village of Lisy Vrah in Bulgaria. Mariana says she was promised £1,500 but only received £689. She was one of six victims procured by Anelia.
Just four days after her operation she was back at home but had to move because of hostility in the village following the transplant.
The family now live in a rented flat in Varna, having also been forced out of lodgings they found with Mariana’s parents in Kozyak, near Lisy Vrah.
Roma gipsy Mariana had risked her life because she was desperate to buy a new home for herself, Georgy and their two children — Galin, eight, and Violetta, five.
Speaking through a translator she told me: “I was approached by Anelia who told me that selling a kidney was easy money."
“She showed me the scar where she had had her own kidney removed and promised me $3,000 (around £1,500) if I sold mine.
“She was very convincing and I desperately needed the money to give my children a life."
“We have nothing and I thought that with the money I could at least give them something."
“Anelia and a driver took me in a car across the border into Turkey. We got to Istanbul and I was taken to a hotel then the clinic. I felt very scared."
“I was told to read and sign a document but it was in a language I didn’t understand. I signed it anyway."
“Soon afterwards I had a jab in the arm and that was that."
“I woke up feeling that something was missing inside me."
“I never met Susan but I was told we were a match because we are both blood group O."
“After, we went to a hotel and another woman stuffed an envelope of cash in Anelia’s pocket."
“She gave me around half the money I was due. I felt sick — but what could I do?"
“Then it was back to my home. The whole thing took four days."
“I bought a colour TV and some trainers and jeans for the children — and that was it. The money was gone and now I feel such a fool.”
Farmer Marincho Yordanov, 58, Mariana’s former neighbour in the farming community of Lisy Vrah, said: “This is the sale of human flesh. It is rich people buying body parts from poor people who can barely afford to feed themselves."
“It’s not right.”
Mariana’s husband Georgy, 29, makes less than £100 a month as a builder. He said: “We lived for a while with Mariana’s family but people were laughing at us."
“We had had to move and now we feel shame. I struggle to support my family every month.”
Anelia Jekova, 37, is in Sliven Prison, where she is serving a four-year term for selling the kidneys of six neighbours.
The hard-faced blonde was arrested with her husband and an accomplice in 2005 and pleaded guilty to dealing in body parts.
She said: “I sold my own kidney. I felt OK afterwards so I thought why not help other people sell theirs? I needed the cash — but I was conned out of money by the contact in Istanbul. The buyers were Canadian, German and two British people, I remember that."
“The woman Mariana’s kidney went to was called Susan — a British woman, a nice woman around 40."
“Now I share a stinking cell with five other women. The toilet is just a bucket on the floor."
“My life is miserable in this prison and my daughter is in care, which makes me so sad. But I feel that some good has come out of it all — we did save this Susan’s life.”
NHS figures show that more than 8,000 Brits are waiting for an organ transplant, but fewer than 3,000 are carried out each year.
Last year more than 400 people died waiting for surgery.
A 2002 survey at Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital revealed that 29 NHS patients nationwide had bought a kidney and had them transplanted abroad.
In more than half those cases, the kidney failed — and one in three of the patients died.
There are 6,190 people in Britain on the NHS waiting list for a kidney transplant.
Surgeon Keith Rigg, from the British Transplant Society, said there was a risk of death for donors like Mariana. He told The Sun last night: “We condemn the sale of organs and transplant tourism completely."
“It’s a very bad idea for the patient and the donor."
“Both end up dealing with criminals as well as doctors who may not be properly qualified.”
Mariana says she often thinks about the British woman who received her kidney.
“I feel proud to have saved Susan’s life and know part of me is with her,” she explained. “But she has a life now — what about me?”