Stories of Kidney Heist

by  Ariyah Edwards

There are two main types of stories about kidney thefts. One story involves a businessman who sees a beautiful woman at a bar which wakes up drugged and wakes up with a missing organ. The other story involves poor people from third world countries that is forced to give up their organs. Kidney heist is an example of a interesting horror story that people would love to read.

For one example, there was a story about a doctor named Amit Kumar from India that was arrested because he was accused of being the leader of a “Kidney Theft Ring” which took up five hundred kidneys from donors over the past nine years. Many rumors were told to other people saying that many children and adults were forced to give up their organs at gunpoint. A victim named Mohammed Salim Khan in India had the experience of his kidney getting stolen. He woke up in an unfamiliar house with a man with a surgical mask ang gloves looking down at him. Mohammed couldn’t move so he asked the man what happened to him and he answered, “Your kidney has been removed”. From that point on Mohammad was wondering how he would live. The purpose of this story is to persuade readers that this story is true. I chose this source because it has a lot of information and details in the story. This story makes you want to learn more about kidney heist. This source is helpful because it shows that kidney heist is not just a myth, it happens in real life.

There was another story that was talking about a traveling businessman going to a bar and seeing a beautiful lady there which poisoned him that night and stole his kidney. A man named Jonathan was sitting at the lounge, he saw very attractive girl that offered to buy him a drink. Not knowing it was a potion, Jonathan drunk the drink and passed out. When he woke up he was in a tub filled with ice. He the noticed there was a tube in his back and his kidneys were gone. The purpose of this source is to entertain a certain audience. I chose this source because it gave me many details in just one paragraph. This source is different because it’s a fiction story. This source reveals that kidney heist is just another fiction horror story.

Works Cited:
 Humes, Lindsey.Magazine spread ideas for the Urban Legend "The Kidney Heist.” Cartoon. N.d. Behance.net. Web. 19 Oct. 2013.

“The National Kidney Foundation Dispels Rumors About Illegally Harvested Kidneys.” Kidney.org.

National Kidney Foundation. 2 Apr. 2000. Web. 9 Oct. 2013. “Sonata for Solo Organ.” Law and Order.Dir. Fred Gerber. NBC. 2 Apr. 2001. Television.

“You’ve Got to Be Kidneying.” Snopes.com.N.p., 12 Mar, 2008. Web. 9 Oct. 2013.

Links for further Research:
Urban Legend
http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Urban_legend.html
This web source, from Princeton University, gives you information on how Urban Legends have played a role in shaping into what it is today.

Debunking the Kidney Heist Hoax http://www.transplantliving.org/community/newsroom/1997/02/debunking-the-kidney-heist-hoax/ This web source provides information on the origin of the rumor.
The Washington post ran a story about The Kidney Heist in 1991. A rejected movie script inspired the story written by The Washington Press.

Kidney Heist -- And Other Urban Myths It`s Really The Truth, We Swear It:
Another Urban Legend Is Born.
http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1991-04-08/features/9101170939_1_story-legend-kidney-heist
This web source provides insight from Jan Brunvand, a folklore professor at the University of Utah.
Brunvand feels the story is an American version of cases where kids in 3rd world countries were kidnapped and killed for their organs.

The Kidney Heist

Author: Rasheda A. Cobb

Original image by Lindsey Humes 

 Since 1991, there have been rumors of people who wake up with their kidney(s) stolen, as the name of this tale suggests.   As described by Jerry Mayfield in You’ve Got to be Kidneying Me, business travelers fall prey to organ- harvesting criminals.  Although there are reported variations of the nature of these incidents, the scenarios are normally as follows:  Jonathan, a pseudonym for this article’s sake, took a business trip to Las Vegas, ironically known as Sin City!   After a very exhausting, long day of work, Jonathan went to a lounge to relax.  Just as Jonathan was about to order a drink, an attractive brunette walked up to him and began to flirt.  She told Jonathan she noticed that he looked tired and offered to buy him a drink.  As anyone would, Jonathan took the offer.  He had no recollection of anything past his first sip of the “potion!”

            Jonathan woke up in a hotel with his body submerged in a tub filled with ice.  He then noticed a note on the wall that instructed him not to move and call 911.  Jonathan reached for the phone on a nearby table and dialed 911.  As he began to explain his emergency, he noticed that the operator seemed familiar with his case.  The operator told Jonathan to feel his lower back to see if there was a tube protruding from his back, and there was.  The operator told Jonathan that his kidney had been stolen!  She then told him not to move and she was sending paramedics to the hotel.  

            I can only imagine that the victims of the kidney heist wake up frightened to death, as an actor portrayed on an episode of Law and Order.  When the victim from the episode (Sonata for Solo Organ) was rushed to the hospital.  The doctor expressed that criminal had sewn the victim back up well.  Meticulousness is evident at that point.  As stated in You’ve Got to be Kidneying me,  “The story went with a well- financed, highly organized gang operating in various major U.S. cities was drugging business travelers and making off with the kidneys to sell on the organ transplant black market.”  This statement also supports the many claims that the criminals were sophisticated and meticulous.

According to Fred Hubert, Chairman of the National Kidney Society, the effects of the rumor, The  Kidney Heist  are detrimental in that it keeps people from becoming kidney donors.   According to Hubert in THE NATIONAL KIDNEY FOUNDATION DISPELS RUMORS ABOUT ILLEGALLY HARVESTED KIDNEYS, “…more than 68,000 Americans are awaiting life-saving organ transplants and 13 to 14 people on the waiting list die each day.”   So, obviously, this tale is not helping the betterment of the world.  Dispelling this rumor is key and attainable with research.   Research can go in so many other directions for this topic such as the origin of the tale, or even comparing the kidney (renal) transplant done by the thief and an actual surgeon.  For even more leads than this article provides visit:    

Other References for Research:

Urban Legend  

http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Urban_legend.html

This web source, from Princeton University, gives you information on how Urban Legends have played a role in shaping into what it is today. 

Debunking the Kidney Heist Hoax 

http://www.transplantliving.org/community/newsroom/1997/02/debunking-the-kidney-heist-hoax/

This web source provides information on the origin of the rumor.  The Washington post ran a story about The Kidney Heist in 1991.  A rejected movie script inspired the story written by The Washington Press. 

Kidney Heist -- And Other Urban Myths It`s Really The Truth, We Swear It: Another Urban Legend Is Born.

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1991-04-08/features/9101170939_1_story-legend-kidney-heist

This web source provides insight from Jan Brunvand, a folklore professor at the University of Utah.  Brunvand feels the story is an American version of cases where kids in 3^rd world countries were kidnapped and killed for their organs.   

Works Cited:

 Humes, Lindsey. Magazine spread ideas for the Urban Legend "The Kidney Heist.”  Cartoon.  N.d.  Behance.net. Web.  19 Oct. 2013.       

“The National Kidney Foundation Dispels Rumors About Illegally Harvested Kidneys.”  Kidney.org. National Kidney Foundation. 2 Apr. 2000. Web. 9 Oct. 2013.

“Sonata for Solo Organ.” Law and Order. Dir. Fred Gerber. NBC.  2 Apr. 2001.  Television. 

“You’ve Got to Be Kidneying.” Snopes.com. N.p., 12 Mar, 2008. Web. 9 Oct. 2013.

The Legend of the Kidney Heist

Author: Austin Hillis

The story of the kidney heist is a well known urban legend. Starting sometime in the early 1990s, The Legend of the Kidney Heist, like so many other urban legends, varies greatly in its details with each telling. The main plot points of the story remain the same, however. One typical version is as follows.

A friend told me that a friend of his was in Chicago on business, and decided to go out to a Rush Street bar. He picked up a beautiful young woman, and they eventually retreated to a motel. The next morning the man woke up with a splitting headache, and there was blood all over the bed sheets. The woman was gone. It doesn’t take him long to discover a freshly stitched incision on his side, and by some means or other the man eventually reaches a local hospital where he finds that one of his kidneys has been removed. He is told by the hospital staff that the operation was performed very professionally, and that his kidney is probably headed for sale on the black market. (Brunvard)

Another popular version involves a pair of businessmen in a different city.

Two married men were out of town on business and shared a hotel room. On the evening before they were to return home, they went down to the hotel bar for a drink. There they met two women, and after a couple of hours one man left with one of the women. The remaining man said goodnight and went up to their room alone. The next morning his friend had not returned, and he waited and waited, fearing they would miss their plane home. Just as he was preparing to leave for the airport, his phone rang. It was his friend, moaning and barely able to talk, saying “Help me, help me; I’m all bloody!” His friend gave an address and the man rushed to his friend’s aid with the police and found him in a motel room in bed covered with blood. He was bleeding from a crudely cut and sutured incision from his chest to his abdomen, and it was discovered that one of his kidneys was missing. Apparently he had been duped by a gang of medically trained organ thieves who lure unsuspecting people to strange motel rooms where they drug them, then cut them open and steal organs to sell for transplants. (Brunvard)

Victim sitting in tub of ice
by Vashtia

The Legend of the Kidney Heist, with all its variations, like many other urban legends has proven to be false. The story is generally a fourth- or fifth-hand account, and no evidence of actual occurrences in the U.S. has been found. The story endures in popularity, however, and has been portrayed in many forms of media, such as movies, television shows, and novels.

While the legend has proven false in the U.S., chilling tales of similar occurrences pop up from time to time in other countries. 

Works Cited:

Brunvard, Jan Harold. "“The Kidney Heist”." Encyclopedia of Urban Legends. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2001. Credo Reference. Web. 17 October 2012.

Emery, David. "The Kidney Thieves." About.com. About.com, n.d. Web. 17 Oct. 2012. <http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/horrors/a/kidney_thieves.htm>.

Mikkelson, Barbara, and David P. Mikkelson. "You've Got to Be Kidneying." Snopes.com: Kidney Theft. Snopes.com, 12 Mar. 2008. Web. 17 Oct. 2012. <http://www.snopes.com/horrors/robbery/kidney.asp>.

Russo, Karen. "Indian Victims Relate Horror of Kidney Theft." ABC News. ABC News Network, 01 Feb. 2008. Web. 23 Oct. 2012. <http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=4224506>.

Vashtia. “The Kidney Heist”. Digital Art. Deviantart.com. 10 Aug 2007. 22 Oct. 2012.               < http://vashtia.deviantart.com/gallery/?offset=96#/d10wryl>

Links for further research:

About.com: Urban Legends

http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/horrors/a/kidney_thieves.htm

Information on the origin and development of the Kidney Heist myth.

Snopes.com: You’ve Got to Be Kidneying Me

http://www.snopes.com/horrors/robbery/kidney.asp

Further information on the origin of the myth.

ABCNews.com: Indian Victims Relate Horror of Kidney Theft

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=4224506&page=1#.UIdPs8VG52A

Information on real life kidney thefts.