AFTER an eight-month wait, Ms Lin Xinru, 29, managed to buy a kidney - in China.
But it was not easy convincing doctors there, not least because organ trading is illegal.
At that stage, though, life mattered more, so she tried a doctor she knew to have helped other kidney patients.
She recalled calling Tianjin every week for seven months until her doctor finally said she should fly over. But even then, he would not give a guarantee that she would get a new organ.
Ms Lin said: 'It was hard coping with work, and dialysis and the anxiety of whether I would get a kidney.'
Discussions on organ trading were rife last week after Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan said on July13 that 'we should not write off or reject' the idea of selling organs.
His comments came in the wake of the first organ trading case here, where two Indonesians were jailed this month for selling their kidneys.
The case involved CK Tang executive chairman Tang Wee Sung, who was going to pay $300,000 for a kidney.
Organ trading is illegal in all countries except Iran.
Ms Lin told The Straits Times that she is torn over this issue of paying for a kidney.
On the one hand, she would not want to pay a live donor as she would not like others to sacrifice their health for her, but on the other hand, if she was getting an organ from a dead donor, she would like to compensate the family.
According to the Ministry of Health, at least 20 people travelled overseas for transplants each year in the past two to three years.
Kidney specialist A. Vathsala of the National University Hospital warned that patients going overseas for transplants were at a high risk of getting hepatitis, HIV and other infections - including viral and fungal infections - and even dying from them.
Ms Lin said: 'I think life is like a bet. You don't know if you will win or lose unless you try.'
She started dialysis in December 2006. At the time, she could not do sports and could drink a maximum of only two small glasses of water a day.
'If I were in my 60s and had to go for dialysis, then I would accept my fate.
'But I'm in my 20s, and there are chances to live. Of course I will take them.'
The ministry said that as of last Tuesday, there were 535 patients on the kidney transplant waiting list.
Ms Lin's family members were not suitable candidates for donation.
So, instead of waiting for a dead donor - 46 people waited an average of nine years for a dead donor last year - she contacted a doctor in China.
For seven months, she faced rejection until one day, her doctor gave a different answer: 'Come to Tianjin.'
The day before she was scheduled to leave, she called the doctor again. To her surprise, he again tried to dissuade her from going over.
'And he didn't give a reason,' said Ms Lin. 'My dream was shattered.'
But her mother suggested they go ahead with the trip and 'treat it as a tour'.
When Ms Lin arrived at the hospital in Tianjin, she was subjected to blood tests and X-rays to determine if she was suitable for a transplant.
Then, after a three-week wait, at 8am one day, her doctor said: 'Tonight, we will bring you up.'
'Up where?' she asked.
'Just prepare yourself.'
Only at 5pm that day was she pushed into the operating theatre. She knew she was receiving the transplant.
'When I was wheeled in, the doctor even joked that he was trimming the kidney for me,' she said.
Now, 11 months after the $70,000 operation, she is in good health, and said she is 'happy and grateful'.
'Everything is almost back to normal. But now, I really appreciate the simple things.'
For example?
'I can drink water without worry. I really enjoy drinking water,' she said, taking a long sip of the drink in front of her.
This article was first published in The Straits Times on July 21, 2008.
