There was a surprising twist to this story that I wrote about last Thursday. Just before the controversial show (“The Big Donor”) was to be aired in the Netherlands on Friday, it was revealed that the show was a fake and the “donor” was not actually dying of cancer. It appears that the contestants were real patients in need of transplants but they were reportedly in on the hoax. The TV network said it was their intention to draw attention to the shortage of organ donations. In any case, even if the show was “real”, it is unlikely that any reputable transplant center would have performed it.

It is hard to tell from Internet articles or news reports what really happened. If all of the “potential recipients” and their families were in on the hoax and there were no real expectations of “winning”, this could be one of the most creative publicity stunts I heard of. It definitely drew a lot of attention to the issue. However, it remains to be seen if there will be any true and long-term benefits to kidney patients waiting for a transplant. In the meantime, I hope that the network donates all their profit to a charity to make it perfectly clear that their intentions were as altruistic as they say they were.