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Teen Bedridden for Life after Selling Kidney for an iPhone

posted by martyb on Sunday January 20 2019, @02:42PM   
from the Eye-for-an-"i"-dept dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

In April 2011, 17 year old Wang Shangkunsold a kidney to buy an iPhone. When asked why he did this, the man said “Why do I need a second kidney? One is enough,”.

The man subsequently developed complications and now needs regular dialysis to survive. The complications may have been caused by a lack of post operative care. The doctors involved have been arrested.

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Original Submission

• a couple of things wrong a couple of things wrong (Score: 5, Informative) by AndyTheAbsurd on Sunday January 20 2019, @06:18PM (3 children)

  by AndyTheAbsurd (3958) on Sunday January 20 2019, @06:18PM (#789092) Journal

  There's a couple of things wrong with this story.

  Being on dialysis does not mean that you're bedridden for life. My wife is on dialysis; she's been on dialysis for eight years. She gets up and walks around just fine. Yes, it sucks; she sits in a chair for four hours at a stretch, three times a week, with giant needles going into her arm so that blood can be removed, processed by the dialysis machine, and returned, but when that's done, she gets up, walks out of the dialysis clinic, and comes home.

  So there's something else going on, which the reports have completely failed to address - which is just bad reporting. If they didn't know what the process of dialysis was like, they should have investigated it - and would have found that many patients do walk in and out on their own, which would have led them to dig deeper.

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• Re:a couple of things wrong Re:a couple of things wrong (Score: 2) by zocalo on Sunday January 20 2019, @06:50PM (1 child)

  by zocalo (302) on Sunday January 20 2019, @06:50PM (#789098)

  He was technically correct in saying he didn't need the second kidney - people do donate one of their kidneys to help siblings, offspring, or other close family members and go onto lead fairly normal lives - but that's generally done with suitable medical due diligence and aftercare, neither of which were provided to Wang. TFA does say that Wang developed complications and his second kidney then failed, so dialysis is a given from that, but perhaps there are other unstated medical issues arising from the complications that led to him actually being bedridden? Or maybe he's perfectly capable of getting up and walking around when not on dialysis but just prefers to spend his time in bed?
  
  One thing it doesn't seem to be is overstating his case related to the payout; that was awarded back in 2012, so it seems doubtful there is much reason to be making out his condition is worse than it is at this point in time.

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  UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!

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  • Re:a couple of things wrong (Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 20 2019, @09:29PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 20 2019, @09:29PM (#789139)

    He is bedridden now, but not from dialysis. He is suffering from MODS since the surgery. This was caused by sepsis, which was caused by an infection he picked up, which was caused by bad post-operative care. The story conflated the bedridden state with having to have dialysis, when both those conditions stem from the same thing, not one causing the other. This probably arose from the particular author of this article, and the ones that are based on it, not understanding the difference.

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• Re:a couple of things wrong (Score: 2) by wirelessduck on Monday January 21 2019, @01:07AM

  by wirelessduck (3407) on Monday January 21 2019, @01:07AM (#789284)

  The story is from Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, so unsurprising that the "journalist" hasn't done their research.

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