KUALA LUMPUR, Feb. 13 -- "Within four years, 50 per cent of kidney failure patients will die without a transplant. Even breast cancer patients have better survival rates."
These were the sobering words of Dr Mohamad Zaimi Abdul Wahab, vice-president of the Malaysian Society of Transplantation, even as Malaysia celebrates the 50th anniversary of its first kidney transplant in 1975, when Martin Rinyeb received a kidney from his brother in the nation's inaugural renal transplant surgery.
Despite being a pioneer in organ transplants in the region, Malaysia has fallen behind. This lag is evident in organ pledges and actual transplants. Data from Malaysia's official Open Data Portal showed just 15,494 pledges last year.
"We're looking at a les...