Expanding minority organ donation

The transplant team at Dignity Health St. Joseph’s Norton Thoracic Institute in Phoenix has urged Hispanics and other minority groups to consider being organ, eye and tissue donors to expand the donor pool.

Living kidney donations have remained a top priority, as Hispanics across the U.S. and in the Southwest have one of the lowest rates of living kidney donations. One donor can provide lifesaving organs to up to eight people.

Gabriel Quiroz, Kidney Transplant Coordinator at Dignity Health St. Joseph’s Norton Thoracic Institute, joined “Arizona Horizon” to discuss the benefits of diversification of the donor pool.

It is vital to diversify the organ donor pool, especially among minority communities that have disproportionately high blood pressure, higher rates of diabetes and heart disease.

“Transplant can be done, blood type matching, between anybody, and it will be a successful transplant,” Quiroz said. “However, science has shown that genetic matching, or at least a genetic match, can even increase that longevity of an organ.”

Over 615,000 adult Arizonans live with diabetes, with nearly 2 million prediabetic, which can lead to Type 2 diabetes, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS). People with these conditions are more susceptible to kidney failure.

Currently, 60% of the transplant list comes from minority communities. African American, Native American and Hispanic individuals are also at a higher risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, according to ADHS.

Despite a higher percentage of minorities needing transplants, those same minorities are still able to donate, according to Quiroz. However, African Americans are the least likely group to donate due to health concerns and medical distrust, according to the National Library of Medicine.

“I think a big part of that is getting the education out there so that [living donors] can help their loved ones and be able to offer that potential gift of life,” Quiroz said.

The Norton Thoracic Institute at St. Joseph’s Hospital helps to ensure living donors are uplifted and healthy enough to donate an organ so that statistically they are less likely to have kidney failure later in life, according to Quiroz.