Video exaggerates the size of the transplant waiting list to deceive about Faustão and SUS – 09/04/2023 – Health

The video in which a man claims that presenter Faustão “skipped the queue” and passed in front of 50,000 people who would be waiting for a heart transplant is misleading. According to the Ministry of Health, each body has a specific waiting list, and the list for a heart, on which Faustão was, does not have thousands of people. According to data updated on September 1 of this year, there are 383 patients waiting for the organ.

In the content verified by Projeto Comprova, the man also claims that the 73-year-old presenter would have been privileged for being rich and famous, and that poor people die without being able to undergo a transplant in Brazil, citing that he himself has been waiting for a long time for the procedure . However, the Ministry of Health points out that the prioritization of patients has nothing to do with fame or wealth and that it follows technical criteria, such as the severity of the case, compatibility and health conditions that enable a good post-transplant recovery.

Wanted, the author of the video, a resident of Floriano, Piauí, said that he had a heart attack in 2018, that he was hospitalized for a year in a hospital in the Federal District and that, since then, he has been waiting for a heart transplant. According to him, ahead of him, there are 18 thousand people – which is not true.

The wait of more than five years was also not confirmed. The DF Health Department reported that the person who has been waiting the longest for a heart in the federation unit was registered on April 23, 2019 and has already had 24 offers turned down. The folder adds that it registers 43 patients on the list, and 39 have already had an offer with refusal. Refusals, he explains, can be justified by lack of donor exams, unfeasible logistics, donor clinical conditions, among other reasons.

Finally, the Ministry of Health stressed that “patients waiting for a heart tend to be prioritized frequently, in view of the seriousness with which many enter the list”.

To the report, Antonio Nunes da Silva stated that he published a video to vent about his situation, since he would be in line for a heart transplant since 2018 without being contemplated, while Faustão managed to undergo the procedure in less than 20 days. He said that he suffered a heart attack in September 2018, as a result of Chagas disease and that the only possibility of cure would be a transplant.

The man said he was still behind 18,000 people. When asked about documents that would prove the diagnosis of the disease and the permanence on the waiting list for the transplant, Silva refused to grant them and was indignant with the doubt about the case.

Misleading, for Comprova, is content removed from the original context and used in another so that its meaning undergoes changes; that uses inaccurate data or that induces an interpretation different from the author’s intention; content that is confusing, with or without the deliberate intent to cause harm.

why do we investigate

Comprova monitors suspicious content published on social networks and messaging apps about public policies and elections at the federal level and opens investigations for those publications that have achieved greater reach and engagement. You can also suggest checks via WhatsApp +55 11 97045-4984. Suggestions and questions related to questionable content can also be sent to Sheet via WhatsApp 11 99486-0293.

Read the complete verification on the Comprova Project website.

The investigation of this content was carried out by O Popular and Grupo Sinos and published on September 4 by Projeto Comprova, a coalition that brings together 41 vehicles to check viral content. It was verified by Folha, Poder360, Correio do Estado, Correio Braziliense, Estadão and Metrópoles.