BehindTheMedspeak: Robert Hickey, world's first internet-kidney recipient, writes bookofjoe

I wrote here on October 21 and again on October 27 about the explosive impact of matchingdonors.com, an internet organ matching service for people needing organ transplants.

Last week I was delighted to read a comment here from Robert Hickey (below on the left) himself.

Who's Robert Hickey?

Only the man who singlehandedly, by his determination not to quietly die while waiting for a donated kidney, brought down the established order of organ transplantation.

Here's his comment, which appeared here last Friday, November 5 (exactly 16 days after he received a kidney as a result of his online ad):
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Thank God for matchingdonors.com.

I have a new lease on life!

The transplant surgeon in Denver is not pleased to have me in his lifespace, neither is the post-transplant nephrologist, Alan Cooper.

Along with UNOS, medical establishment physicians like Kam the surgeon and Cooper the nephrologist are causing unnecessary pain and suffering.

Thanks to Rob Smitty and matchingdonors.com, I am now able to fight for others who find themselves in a similar position to me on 10/18/04 when the surgeon originally cancelled my transplant.

Public pressure made the hospital change that and allowed the transplant to proceed on 10/20/04.

Robert Hickey