B.C. doctors say lack of transplant surgeons means donated kidneys are sent elsewhere

In British Columbia, only four surgeons do all the kidney transplants at two Vancouver hospitals. Kidneys that can't be used are getting shipped to other provinces.

Sukinder Mangat has been waiting 11 years for a kidney transplant while enduring dialysis three times a week as part of a routine that leaves him exhausted, worried and unable to work.

“I have not gone on holidays in the last 11, 12 years,” Mangat said before a four-hour appointment at a Richmond, B.C., community dialysis unit where his blood will pass through a machine to be cleaned of waste products and excess fluid because his kidneys can't do that job.

“Basically, I just come home, have dinner and just go to bed,” the 59-year-old said.

Mangat is on a wait list for a second kidney transplant after his first donated kidney failed because of a viral infection.

But getting a compatible kidney could be a challenge because patients awaiting a second transplant are considered “highly sensitized,” meaning their immune system, primed with a high level of antibodies after the first transplant, could more easily reject a new kidney.

However, there's a bigger problem for everyone waiting for a kidney in British Columbia, where only four surgeons do all the transplants at two Vancouver hospitals. Kidneys that can't be used are getting shipped to other provinces.

BC Transplant, the provincial agency responsible for organ transplants, said 56 kidneys were sent elsewhere last year.