CARTA AL DIRECTOR

Dear Editor,

I read in this section, in the past issue of May-June of 2008, a letter signed by Professors and Doctors Hernandez Altemir and Hernandez Montero, the title and content of which I found very difficult to understand.

The authors argue that it is necessary to improve Primary Medicine (as no one questions) and state, among other things, that they are not pleased with the large number of organ transplantations performed in Spain and the high rate of donations that exists. I only wanted to say to the authors that they should reflect on what transplantation means for the person who is waiting for an organ and receives it. One example is patients with severe renal failure who are in dialysis programs. They spend several days a week connected to a machine for hours. In the Community of Madrid alone, 900 patients are waiting for the kidney to save them, which will be donated altruistically by some generous person who passes away. In addition, it is known that by the end of just one year, transplantation is cost-effective because the costs of dialysis disappear and the survival and quality of life of the receptor significantly increase.

The statement by the authors, "fewer transplants and more Primary Medicine," seems like a cruel sophism to me. Similar statements like "fewer space launches and more bus lines," for example, would bring us to the absurd situation in which any progress or innovation of the human species would be impossible. There will always be diseases and patients. More Primary Medicine and more transplants. They’re both necessary and beneficial.

Manuel Chamorro Pons

Jefe de Sección. Servicio de Cirugía Oral y Maxilofacial. Hospital "La Paz", Madrid. España