Surgeon says organ harvesting syndicate a hoax

DAGUPAN CITY—Reports circulating on social media that men in white vans are abducting and extracting the organs of teenagers could not possibly be true, given that only a handful of surgeons in the country could perform organ transplants.

Dr. Rehana Pallingayan, head of the Region 1 Medical Center’s organ procurement office in this city, said there are no more than 50 surgeons capable of performing transplants across the country.“All of the transplant surgeons in the country know each other. So we would know if someone is doing [unscrupulous activities] because the procedure couldn’t be done by someone on his own. He always has a partner,” said Pallingayan, a Philippine Society of Transplant Surgeons member.

While the country has the technology to preserve kidneys up to 24 hours after extraction, this is limited and accessible only to hospitals.