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Courtesy Hu Jie
Hu Jie seen in a photo taken in Guangzhou, China in May 2010, months before his kidney was removed.
BEIJING – Until recently 26-year-old Hu Jie led a life similar to millions of other young Chinese migrant workers. With little formal education, he worked as a welder in the manufacturing center of Panyu, a city in China’s southern province of Guangdong. He made $400 a month.
But last October Hu became addicted to poker, gambling with friends, and soon lost almost $3,000. Under pressure from his creditors to pay back the high-interest debt, Hu came up with an idea of how he could get money quickly: sell his kidney.
The initial process was fairly easy: He searched online, found dozens of middlemen in China’s shady “organ transplant business” and decided to contact one of them who seemed trustworthy.
Later that month he met with a middleman in eastern Shandong province, more than 1,000 miles away from his home. In a hotel Hu saw not only the middleman, but also a few other young men who also desperately needed cash and were ready to sell their kidneys. They were each offered $6,000 for one kidney.
Hu passed an initial medical exam and his information was soon posted online for buyers to match.
But then he suddenly became seized by terror at the thought of losing an organ. So he ran away – back to Guangdong.
Not so fast
In the following months the middleman continued to call him and scold him for running away. Pressured by the middlemen’s constant calls and his own thirst for cash, Hu made up his mind to go to Shanxi province to meet the prospective buyer, a patient suffering from kidney failure, as well as another middleman.
The second middleman turned out to be a young man who had just sold his kidney two months earlier. During the days they spent together Hu saw him constantly moaning in pain. Terrified by seeing the horrendous aftermath, Hu says he told the middlemen he didn’t want to go through with the surgery.
Courtesy Hu Jie
The scar left on Hu Jie's left abdomen after his kidney was removed.
But it was too late. His unwillingness and protests were to no avail; he was being watched constantly by the middlemen. When he tried to leave the grungy local hospital in Linfen, Shanxi province where the kidney recipient was staying, some of the middlemen’s henchmen were at the hospital gates and forced him into an operating room on Jan. 6, 2011.
When Hu Jie woke up from the anesthesia, everyone was gone except for a nurse. Also missing was his left kidney. All that was left behind was a long scar on his left abdomen and $4,000 in his bank account. (The middlemen stiffed him and took the additional $2,000 he was initially offered for the kidney).
He later learned that the patient had paid $47,000 for the transplant. And when he tried to contact the middlemen again, he found their cell phones turned off.
“It was my fault too, why did I go?” Hu said in an interview with NBC News. “I was still working on that morning and I was forced to the surgery room in the afternoon. I regretted and cried but I was too weak.”
Underground organ market
Organ transplant remains a chaotic yet secretive market in China. Several doctors and other medical experts declined interview requests on account that it was a “sensitive” topic.
Each year, more than 1 million people in China need organ transplants, but only 1 percent get the organs they need, according to official statistics cited in the state-run China Daily.
Executed criminals have long been used as a source for organ transplants, but since a 2007 ruling by China’s Supreme Court decided all death penalty executions must be approved by the Supreme Court in Beijing – the number of executions has dropped dramatically – so has the supply of organs.
The gap between supply and demand has spawned a gigantic underground market for body parts. Search “kidney source” or “liver source” on Baidu.com, the major search engine in China, and plenty of “agents” can be found in the illegal but very open Internet-based body part market. A complete business chain, from donors and receivers to middlemen and hospitals, exists despite China’s “Human Organ Transplant Regulations,” issued in May 2007, which make it illegal for any organizations or individuals to buy or sell human organs.
China’s Ministry of Health implemented very specific regulations for live organ donors in 2009. According to the regulations, the only people eligible to give organ donations are couples who have been married for more than three years or who have children, blood relatives of the patient, or foster parents and foster children.
But the law’s regulation that a live donor must be a spouse or a relative of the organ recipient provides a loophole because agents can easily fake documents and IDs for the donors who pretend to be “relatives.”
“Organ tourism” also made big news a few years ago when “tourists” from developed countries like the U.S., Japan and Saudi Arabia started coming to China for organ transplant operations. The Ministry of Health had to order an investigation in 2009 after the media exposed an “organ transplant tour” by 17 Japanese citizens, and reiterated that Chinese patients must be the priority for such surgeries.
Hospitals are ‘liars’
Despite the illegal nature of the trade and Hu’s admitted role in it, he decided to disclose the whole story.
By now it’s been almost three months since Hu lost his left kidney. He still suffers from constant fatigue and bloody urine and stools.
“All these big hospitals are liars, not only the small ones,” said Hu. “The market is much bigger than you can imagine.”
Hu’s parents, like China’s many timid farmers, don’t want their son to talk to the media out of fear that he will face retaliation. But Hu said he doesn’t really care now, because nothing can be worse than his current situation, he says.
The hospital where his operation was performed is being investigated and one nurse has been arrested. Hu doesn’t know what will happen next.
Leave a Comment:
Never gamble.. you cant win... if you could there be no gambling places.
And how many times have you lost before you finally won your precious $8,000?
Oh you can win alright, if luck is on your side, i just won $650 yesterday and $350 on full tilt, but you must set some rules for yourself otherwise you will lose. If you dont have the money to play then dont, I take $60 bucks in if I win i stick it in my pocket, not back in the machine
@Swarles: How much money have you lost in comparison to what you've won (and how much in time and associated costs like travel, hotel, & food)?
All i can say is I'm glad I live in a country where they shoot you in the head and dump your body in Hoboken when you don't pay your gambling depts
Isn't this story about illegal kidney transplants? I guess the old saying "if you play with fire you're going to get burned" has some merit. @ bcct59 your comment is priceless! Go Jersy
I won $260 in nickels the one and only time I played a slot machine in Reno, using a single nickel. I won't ever do it again because trying to carry 5,200 nickels to the counter sucked. They wouldn't even leave the nickels in the $100 bags they used to refill the machine for me. "Sorry sir, you have to get them from the coin catcher"
bbct59,
what a waste! shoot 'em in the head, sure, but those organs are valuable. I mean, you don't dump a stolen car before you strip the parts do you?
Ever watch the movie COMA?
Me and my husband walked out of the casino with over 1000$ more than when we came in... That casino still hasnt got there money back. We each bring 100$ and usually break even. We probably still have 800$ more than what we would.
Yabbut "@Swarles: How much money have you lost in comparison to what you've won (and how much in time and associated costs like travel, hotel, & food)?"
I cant speak for Swarles, but for me personally - i've probably broken even (overall). I dont gamble much, but when I do go to a casino - I view as a form of entertainment. So if I take $60 - I plan to spend $60.
Not much different than going to a ball game, where you fork out $30-50 for your ticket, then another $30-50 for concessions...you intend to spend $60-100 on that game, and you know you could just watch it from home and eat out of your fridge, and save the money...but you are looking for the entertainment of being at the park.
Same with gambling. I've gone in with $20 and spent 3 hrs gambling that same $20.
Thats entertainment...may not be to you, but for many...it is.
You really shouldnt compare the logical folks who view gambling for what it is - entertainment, with the ones who spend every single day there, in the hopes of striking it rich. Not even the same type of animal. Clearly, one is broke and desperate, the other (like me) not so much...
just my two cents.
Yeah, well somebody wins the lottery jackpots--for $2 I buy a (VERY) slim chance, and it helps the schools anyway. Those guys in New York are glad they gambled a few bucks!
This real story sounds like a fictional polska story in the decalogue. The story was directed by krzysztof kieslowski. It is about 2 brothers who are stamp collectors! They want 3 stamps of the Austrian rose. 1 brother donates his kidney to get the stamps.
Gambling for recreation and entertainment is one thing. When you can set and stick with a budget that allows you to have fun and still afford to get home, etc. then you are "doing it right."
This article is referring to those that have a serious problem, though. The ones that take their paycheck and gamble it away and then borrow against whatever they have for credit. Those are the people that lose their car, house, kidney, life, etc. Those are the people that gamblers anonymous are geared to help, but they are the ones that are reluctant to seek help, until it's too late.
It's so sad that it is almost funny that he feels he was ripped off for the $1000, which he could have gambled with, when he is lucky he woke up alive and that they put ANY money into his account! He is also lucky that they didn't harvest a lung, spleen, eye, arm, etc. He no longer fears retribution because he doesn't feel anything worse can happen to him, wow how narrow-sighted is that. The kind of people he is messing with don't always physically hurt you to make you hurt, they will go after others that you care about. IF he is lucky, again, he may just get killed and that will be the end of it for him, but if his luck runs out...., well I hate to even write down what could happen.
Good point, Jessica. As you can probably tell, I'm not a big gambler, partly because I don't find it entertaining.
My "Golden Rule" any time I gamble or walk into a casino is take and spend only what I can afford to lose, and no more! If I lose it, then I walk out.
i think it's funny this is an article about a man losing his kidney yet it has digressed over to the finer points of gambling. ah, america. anyway having lived in vegas and gambling a lot, i can tell you it's a lot of fun. but for every awesome story i have, i have about ten bad ones. i don't do it anymore. the smartest choices are poker, sports gambling, and perhaps not doing it at all.
Table game odds aren't that bad. Craps is -2%, roulette -6%. The win is off people who won't quit when they're losing, and winners who won't take money off the table.
I've always come out ahead of the casinos because I've never been to one. I just paid off a mortgage on a house I bought in 2006 and now I have a secure place to retire to. Even buying stocks is a big gamble, but at least you can make an educated guess based on past history and stock ratings. My grandfather and great grandfather used to race horses in harness races. They did it only for the sport and the honor of winning ribbons and cups of which they won plenty. They would never bet on any horses at any time in their lives. It was a sad thing for them to see betters lose money.
Do not gamble? Sage advice if you have other responsibilities that you should be taking care of. On the other hand, what use is such advice if all of life is a gamble. At the very least, a Brazilian saying tells us that "marriage is a lotto".
And what about the jogger in Central Park that woke up missing a kidney?
He was a willing soul at the beginning and got himself into the mess. Why did he ever go back another time. He had a choice not to gamble and not to go to that hospital. It is his own fault.
"Logic" like this is how people end up blaming rape victims. He said no, they kidnapped and maimed him. The gambling debt is his fault, the loss of his kidney is not.
He was lucky they just did not leave him all cut up for spare parts!
GAMBLING = The odds are always against you.
Exactly! The casinos are there to win. They do not stay in business losing. Their plan is to take your money.
I keep telling my friends and co-workers that go to Las Vegas to gamble:
"Just give me the money that you intend loosing and I'll kick you in the nuts and tell you you lost all your money. That way you'll have the sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach and you're broke"
Denton, I always told the truck driver where I worked in school who went to Vegas every year and dropped 5 or 6 grand that she should give me the money, I would give her half back and I could guarantee she would come out ahead. Unfortunatly for both of us she never took me up on it.
Poor guy gets himself into a desperate situation and then trades it for an even more desperate situation! This is what poverty and a lack of education can lead to...take a long, hard look, America! Keep cutting funding for education and continue to focus on profits instead of steady employment and this could very well be where we are heading. I hope there is some justice to be had for this young man and the potentially thousands more like him. Peace to all!
AngieS, there are thousands of highly educated Americans (and others) who have gambling problems. I don't think this is a political issue, but can understand your response because the article stated that the young man in this instance was a laborer with little formal education.
Amen AngieS! I look at American governors across our land cutting education funding with an eye solely on balancing budgets. There has to be some shared responsibility when it comes to keeping people from becoming desperate. Good paying jobs, education and laws that support the greater good. The only advantage a person has over a casino is the ability to stop gambling at any time. People should only gamble with what they can afford to lose, and nothing more. I think this poor man serves as a lesson for all of us.
"There has to be some shared responsibility when it comes to keeping people from becoming desperate."
I love statements like this. What does this mean? Do you mean that people should be paying more in taxes?
Yes. Especially the rich.
The top 2% in this country pay 14% of the taxes collected. The bottom 43% pay nothing in federal taxes. Do you see anything wrong with this?. 55% of our population gives the bottom 43% a FREE ride. There should be NO free ride. Everyone should pay. These stats are available, BTW from the IRS.
and hold 80% of the wealth. Now you didn't say they pay 14% on their taxes you said 14% OF the taxes on 80% of the wealth. Do you see an issue with that? If you don't you're not too bright.
A rich man, A tea partier and a poor person sit down at a table. Someone comes by and drops off 20 cookies. The rich man immediately grabs 19 of them. He turns to the tea partier and says, "You'd better watch out for that poor guy, he's trying to steal half your cookie."
This is the country American capitalism loves so much. In fact, Thomas Friedman said China had the best run government on the planet. I guess, if one has no morals or care for one's fellow's, and is obsessed only with greed by exploitation of those fellow's, then, one could believe such from the heart, or wherever one's core is located. Damn shame.
lawful1, this most certainly IS a political problem. Just because it's China doesn't mean that it's okay for this kind of stuff to go on. Yeah, the guy was uneducated. So did that mean he had no rights to his own body? He was poor and had a debt. Should we require everyone who owes debts to pay with their organs? (Please don't answer that, it's only rhetorical, not in any way meant to be a suggestion to the repubs).
He made some bad choices, but he didn't deserve what he got. It's truly a shame that this can happen anywhere on this planet.
Doug-2563938 - Those poor, poor rich people!! My heart bleeeeeds for them! NOT!
Anyone who works pays taxes into the system, it is deducted from their paycheck--many get a return on FICA because they are below, at, or near, the poverty line--so, no I don't think it's a good idea to make it so that working people can't stay alive--bad idea. The wealthy, on the other hand, take considerably more out of society than they put into it, and their tax rate should be returned to Clinton era levels. Reducing government income while starting multiple wars doesn't make good sense--and it had never been done before now. But, no problem, we can reduce the debt (HAH!) on the backs of the poor and middle income earners, they're nothing but loafing uneducated slaves anyway!
Your final line is one I agree with
Looks like he got justice to me. He had a good job (for China) wasn't poor or ignorant. He made every choice here. no pity party necessary.
His fault that there are rat bastards,criminals,in this world?? I don't think so !!
Hell we have rat bastards running our American banking institutions. Sucking the middle and lower class Americans dry while propping up the already wealthy and well to do fat cats. These people who subjugate the lower classes are nothing more than scumbag pigs who should be shot on sight. This includes Banking Institution executives and the like.
I can't honestly say that I don't feel anything at all about this young man's situation. He gambled and he lost, with money and with his body. One can only hope he's learned a valuable lesson about gambling.
Correction to my post - I CAN honestly say that I don't feel anything. Fingers reacting to too much coffee this morning. My bad.
You are a cold-hearted a$$hole. I hope that one day your credit card company will demand payments for your gambling with your debt, and take your kidney. Let's see how much you b!tch up a storm then. I am quite sure that we will see the same in our lifetime here in the US. We are nothing but slaves and sheep to the elite who will do everything to keep power and try and live forever, even if they step on a few poor peoples toes, along the way.
Not a chance in the world that will happen. Personal responsibility and accountability go a long way.
"Not a chance in the world that will happen. Personal responsibility and accountability go a long way"
Says the guy wasting time posting in some meaningless message board all morning?
You, or a loved one, are only one serious medical problem away from being needy too....it's disengenous to pretend you're not.
Desperate times call for desperate measures. People gamble usually because they want fast cash. The people who get into gambling trouble are the last ones who should be gambling to begin with. I hope he does okay with one kidney. They say the remaining one will grow larger and handle body functions as long as it is healthy. I also hope he doesn't gamble any more unless he wants to give up something else.
fool
The Chinese government could end this simply by decreeing that all those who die must be subject to organ harvest. They are an autocratic government, they can can easily do that, and it would help all who need organs and would keep this kind of thing from happening.
Well homesickyank, that is a little scary, I'd hate to think that maybe a life that could be saved would instead be let to die just for the sake of an organ and a few dollars...
naive bastard...organ harvest is big business. Do you know how much the Chinese government hates their over-population problem, loves money, and is full of corruption? A great formula for simply arresting anyone that is young and healthy and would fetch some big money on the market.
No profit in it. They treat their people like collateral damage. They mean nothing. They are poor and uneducated and legion. The government would rather see them die. One less potential dissident.
Stop me if any of this sounds familiar...
mj you have no idea what you are talking about...go live in China like the rest of us that know something about it before you open your mouth.
Why is this story about corruption and the criminal classes raking advantage of the poor and stupid news?
Paid $47,000 and he gets $4,000? That is a bad deal. Alive after shady illegal trade? Priceless. Use that money to pay his debt and move to LA! Welcome...Welcome. Ni Hao!
He is lucky they didn't take both kidneys and leave him to die.
I was surprised they actually paid him anything.
DUMB *SS
I'm amazed by the lack of sympathy on here. Sure it is his own fault that he allowed his gambling debts to spiral out of control, but nobody should be forced into this situation. Even if he did take the first steps on that road, he should have been able to back out.
I'm thinking he probably new this was a back-alley kind of deal, trinitydoll. Sure it would be nice if they would have let him back out, but when you deal with thugs there are not rules...
He wasn't really forced into the situation. HE contacted the organ middlemen. True he did try unsuccessfully to back out but he put himself in that situation in the first place. You do not have to be educated to know that's not a smart move. There are other ways to get out of debt besides dealing with shady, back alley characters.
Really? Even after laws are passed that "Debtors Prisons" are no longer going, some Judges have decided upon themselves that people can go to jail for not paying debts. Ask the IRS how they get around this, after all would it not be a debtor prison they send you to if you don't pay taxes/ debt to the government?
A criminal act is not lessened by the fact it could have been anticipated. Just because he should have expected the consequences does not make the them any less illegal and does not make him any less a victim.
really?? he was forced to do this? twice even? you need to reread the story.
Hu knew these guys weren't on the level. It's part of why he backed out the first time. But he let these people shame him into going back after he'd left. They didn't come to his house and drag him back to the hospital. No, they didn't let him leave after he came back but he walked himself in there the first and second times. He gambled with his life in addition to his money.
Trinity doll, that is a very pretty shade of Rose color on your glasses! This happened because he was thinking about all that money he could make from selling his kidney! My what he could do with all that money, he could likely double it at that casino and then have twice as much to pay his debts and continue to win!!! He decided to allow himself into this very dangerous situation on more than one occasion, this is not lack of sympathy, but rather a very hard 'life lesson' that he has an opportunity to learn from. Will he learn from it? He now feels 'emboldened' that nothing worse can happen to him, because of the pain from the surgery, that is very likely to go away in a few more months. Though the size and shape of the scar indicates that the doctor was not very good and I wonder what the inside looks like, if they fully cautorized and sealed everything properly or if he has some internal bleeding.
He is a very lucky boy! It could get much worse if he doesn't take precautions, as those 'type of people' that did this to him are not the type that like publicity and could do much worse things to him and his loved ones.
Gambling is an addiction, just like drugs & alcohol. Aren't we the judemental ones. I hope this situation can open his eyes & he is able to let go of this destructive habit.
wow nail on the head: destructive habit
PS gambling is a problem but NOT the problem that landed him a life with one less organ.
Gambling? Education?...In the United States millions of citizens are not only loosing their kidneys but also loosing their livers, their hearts and every other organ in their body and eventually loose their lives as well. The constant use of Cocaine and other potent ilicit drugs drives a market willingly provided by Americans so that criminals in the producing countries make huge sums of Money. People in the US also make lots of Money; from the judge deciding the case, the lawyer defending the criminals, the prison guards and parole officers, all the way down to the Poppie field farmer. It is an industry, just like the black market for human organs. Will it ever stop? No...there is too much Money to be made. A sad coment on the Human condition.
Bill,
I want to meet these US poppy farmers.
@ kedbob, It's easy to find poppies in the US, just follow the "Muffin Man."
There was a scary organ theft ring in the mid-90s. The perps would take a waylaid victim to a motel room where they would remove what they wanted (most often kidneys and lungs). They then left their victim in a bathtub of ice water with a note for the victim to read when they came around, explaining what organs they were missing and instructing them to call 911. When I read the headline on this article I thought there was a copycat crime going on in China.
That story is a myth. Go to snopes and put in organ donation. They have a great article on how this became an urban legend. I have worked with organ donation for over 7 years, and matching kidney donors and recipients is rather complicated because it involves more than just a blood type, but also tissue typing, to ensure a good match and lessen the possibility of rejection.
Wasn't this a movie a couple of years ago where people would steal others kidneys while they slept? These types of movies have got to be stopped so people do not copy-cat them.
The movie got the idea from the real world. Underground organ transplant rings are well more than a couple years old.
The movie Touristas came to mind when reading this article.
"These types of movies have got to be stopped so people do not copy-cat them."
Yea, and lets burn all the crime ficton books too!! That's the ticket to all the evil and greed......censorship! Then no one will do harm! Utopia is so near and yet we insist on being creative and story tell to entertain ourselves. And don't forget the evils of sex - surely banning porn and sexy lingerie will lower out of control birthrates and violence against women and children. Perhaps we should all get lobotomized and castrated while we're at it just to be sure. Yeah YouNeedTruth2 you're a freakin genius- don't waste your social policy talents here when you belong in National politics!
<eyeroll>
I'm surprised that this degenerate gambling genius didn't offer to sell his heart for $10K!
I agree trinity doll....it is amazing not only the lack of sympathy but the lack of empathy. I truly believe some folks don't have the ability to put themselves in the shoes of others.
They are called "conservatives", for future reference.
way to take a cheap shot steve- you know dick!
And there you go, proving my point.
I agree trinitydoll. It is amazing not only the lack of sympathy but the lack of empathy. I truly believe some folks don't have the ability to put themselves in the shoes of others.
My brother needs a kidney right now... please be a donor so we don't have to steal one.
KEDBOB. A grammatical mistake; I was referring to the poppie farmers in the producing countries. However, I don't know if any poppie farmers exist in the US. An interesting question nevertheless. Thanks for the correction.
Come on people. Like this doen't happen here in the US on the black market. Yes, maybe he was crazy to gamble and put his life on the line. People sell their organs everyday to have money to buy drugs and gamble. I am surprised more people don't sell a kidney because of the economy situation.
Sure he was ignorant and played with fire, but they forcibly took a body part and now he's suffering from a botched surgery! What if he gets a staff infection and dies? The rich people can afford to pay for a new kidney, but the desperately poor shouldn't have to be victims. Nobody should be forced into a violation of their body against their will. If this man lives, he's going to suffer from emotional trauma, nightmares, health problems, and probably can't work anymore. It's like he was raped and that's not right.
nobody forced him. he made the choice...twice.
What do you mean, nobody forced him? Did you not read the article? His kidney was forcibly removed against his will. Are you insinuating that by him merely inquiring about paid kidney donation that he agreed to do it?
haha RainGrl is worried about a staff infection.
"When he tried to leave the grungy local hospital in Linfen, Shanxi province where the kidney recipient was staying, some of the middlemen’s henchmen were at the hospital gates and forced him into an operating room on Jan. 6, 2011."
Nobody force him to look up a "transplant for money option" on the internet. Nobody forced him to travel to a meeting with the mob. Nobody forced him to make a deal with a price. He was staying at the hospital!! He knew it was illegal and he did it twice. What did he expect?
When he tried to back out sure he was forced. Granted, that should be his right, but you think he would have any rights with the mob at this point??? What the hell else is going to happen if backed out? You think these people play nice? The probably had a buyer and expenses already into the whole thing. He knew what he was getting into (again, it's all highly illegal). So did he have a choice??? YES! He's luck to be alive. They could have drugged him or killed him and extracted quickly too.
Naive bastard.
Granted he kind of got himself into a messy situation, doesn't mean they should have taken his kidney. But he should have been more careful. Either way it is his fault, in the sense, he was kind of asking for it. Naive? Maybe, but did he deserve it? I doubt any one does.
I new a programmer who wrote the algorithms for slot machines and he said the machines are literally designed to push out just enough to sucker people back into playing more. And the machines are networked so one machine knows when another paid out and they adjust their odds accordingly.
The odds are mathematically stacked against you.
How true. Vegas never loses money at the end of the day.
It's only a gambling problem if you lose.
lol NOT