To the Editor:
Wendy Royston wrote Saturday about three residents with rare forms of kidney failure (two had hereditary kidney failure, one had IgA nephropathy). All three were on dialysis facing long waiting times for a kidney transplant. What people don't realize is that most kidney failure is preventable (1), although nobody in health care wants you to know it (2), So far, health care
has won the battle and kept the public ignorant.
But if 90 percent of kidney failure were prevented, the remaining 10 percent of kidney patients, like the three described by Ms. Royston, could all get a cadaver kidney (from a dead person) right away.
That's because 100,000 Americans currently go on dialysis every year. Reducing this by 90 percent leaves only 10,000 people who need a kidney. The number of cadaver kidney transplants has been over 13,000 for the past three years.
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David W Moskowitz MD FACP
Hollywood, Florida
