Corneas

susie x

New member
Jan 17, 2004
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Hello!

Can anyone help with this info. 18 months ago I befriended a Dominican man and we have stayed in touch since. His Mother needs her corneas replacing but apparently there is a problem with getting hold of corneas - this has been for months now and been blamed on the US/Iraq war!!!!!!

I started a fund with some friends of mine to enable his Mom to get the operation but if there are no corneas, that is pointless. I have met his Mum.

Can anyone tell me if this is the case - it just doesn't seem possible, not for this length of time, anyway.
 

Hillbilly

Moderator
Jan 1, 2002
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I am sure that you will get hit with a lot of static. I would not, personally, send the man a dime. Whether this is a rip off or not--and the odds are pretty much in favor of it being a rip--you should not send money.

Unless you come here, go to the eye doctor's office with her, and get a written diagnosis with a cost estimate, you are going to get taken.

This man that you met at the hotel, probably has half a dozen other women contributing to his mother's operation...

And this is just the first of many..in a similar vein. Sorry.

HB
 

HOWMAR

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Jan 28, 2004
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Something doesn't sound legit. to me. She is saying that there is a shortage of corneas in the DR due to the war? With the shortage of corneas in the US, is she saying that the US has in the past exported corneas to the DR and has now stopped? Certainly war related eye injuries may have led to an increase need for corneas in the US, but I doubt if the US ever permitted exportation of transplant tissues. How many Americans are waiting for corneas?
As an aside, I was approaced by a guy who said he needed money for a kidney transplant in Santo Dominigo. As he was a caucasian Brit, I asked him how he expected to find a matching kidney donation from a Dominican population? He quickly changed his story to needing a heart operation instead of a kidney transplant.
 

susie x

New member
Jan 17, 2004
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Thanks for the warnings - yes this is what I have been told that they (corneas) are sent (bought) from the US to DR. I didn't even think how silly that probably is, it was the length of time that seemed so odd.

His Mum did have to put eyedrops in her eyes constantly when I saw her.
 

cobraboy

Pro-Bono Demolition Hobbyist
Jul 24, 2004
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Ever notice how unhealthy is it to be the mother of a resort worker in the DR?:rolleyes:
 

HOWMAR

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Jan 28, 2004
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Just to confirm my prior post, it is prohibited to export organs for transplantation from the US.
6.4.1 Exportation. Exportation of organs from the United States or its territories is prohibited unless a well documented and verifiable effort, coordinated through the Organ Center, has failed to find a suitable recipient for that organ on the Waiting List.

http://www.unos.org/PoliciesandBylaws2/policies/pdfs/policy_18.pdf

As corneas are relatively easy to match and there is always a waiting list in the US, exportation to the DR seems unlikely.