{"id":2562,"date":"2012-09-05T11:58:48","date_gmt":"2012-09-05T11:58:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/?p=2562"},"modified":"2015-01-08T13:31:29","modified_gmt":"2015-01-08T18:31:29","slug":"pulitzer-winning-pittsburgh-press-story-on-kidney-transplantation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2012\/09\/05\/pulitzer-winning-pittsburgh-press-story-on-kidney-transplantation\/","title":{"rendered":"Pulitzer-winning Pittsburgh Press story on kidney transplantation"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

Nov. 3, 1985<\/strong><\/em>: Pittsburgh Press reporter Andrew\u00a0Schneider\u00a0had been reading front-page stories about foreign nationals who came to the U.S. for kidney transplants and who received them almost immediately. Those articles made him suspicious.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew that the waiting list for kidneys at that time was 15,000 people, and the average wait time was nine to 19 months,\u201d he said recently. \u201cAnd now, we had people coming in and getting them in three weeks?\u201d<\/p>\n

He teamed up with fellow Press reporter Mary Pat Flaherty to look into the issue. Together, they spent 10 months reporting on kidney transplantation. They started with local stories, realizing over time that this issue extended beyond U.S. borders, to Canada, Europe and Asia. It was \u201cclassic shoe-leather reporting,\u201d Ms. Flaherty said recently.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to prove that the people who got the organs, in this case the wealthy foreign nationals, were not as ill as those being bypassed,\u201d said Mr. Schneider.<\/p>\n

Their work took them from Presbyterian University Hospital (now UPMC Presbyterian), where Ms. Flaherty skillfully searched through medical records, to locations across the world. They reported on Filipino President Ferdinand Marcos\u2019 kidney surgeries; they traced organs that were inequitably allocated to London and the United States; they witnessed people in Indian slums trade kidneys for black-and-white televisions, electric fans and money for education or dowries, according to the reporters. What they witnessed was shocking.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter they sold it, it wasn\u2019t like they were coming into great follow-up care,\u201d said Ms. Flaherty.<\/p>\n

Over the course of their investigation, they \u201cfound that money, rather than medicine, often sets the path of kidneys from donors to recipients,\u201d according to the Nov. 3 article. The stories led to congressional hearings and new laws limiting organ bartering.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the kind of stuff we hoped for when we busted our butts,\u201d said Mr. Schneider.<\/p>\n

The team won\u00a0a Pulitzer Prize for Specialized Reporting in 1986, for \u201ctheir investigation of violations and failures in the organ transplantation system in the United States,\u201d according to the Pulitzer website. It was the first Pulitzer won by journalists at The Pittsburgh Press.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou just go out and do the job, and you hope it makes a difference. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s a formula for winning a Pulitzer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe had to prove that the people who got the organs, in this case the wealthy foreign nationals, were not as ill as those being bypassed\u201d<\/p>\n

Look at the picturesPulitzer-winning Pittsburgh Press story on kidney transplantation<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":2563,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[946],"tags":[964,1251,980,1036,1244],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/tumblr_m9u2hvd3EM1rr5swxo1_1280.jpg?fit=1199%2C1920&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2374,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2012\/10\/25\/dr-thomas-starzl-sleeps-in-an-ambulance\/","url_meta":{"origin":2562,"position":0},"title":"Dr. Thomas Starzl\u00a0sleeps in an ambulance","date":"October 25, 2012","format":"gallery","excerpt":"A physician and professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, Dr. Thomas Starzl pioneered in the field of liver transplantation.","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/tumblr_mbfzgi6jiG1rr5swxo1_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C802&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6731,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2016\/04\/25\/amigo-from-venezuela-remembers-meeting-clemente-in-pittsburgh-grateful-for-experience-50-years-later\/","url_meta":{"origin":2562,"position":1},"title":"Amigo from Venezuela remembers meeting Clemente in Pittsburgh, grateful for experience 50 years later","date":"April 25, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"With their student hosts, the Amigos got a taste of life for American teenagers. 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