20,000 U.S. Hispanics awaiting organ transplants

VOXXI
The number of Latino families agreeing to donate organs at the death of a relative in a hospital increased 75 percent last yearâ€"a record number and a dramatic hike from 40-60 percent a decade ago. (Shutterstock photo)

Paulina Guevara of East Los Angeles thought her fate would soon be that of her father who died young because of a hereditary kidney disease.

Without a new kidney, says 21-year-old Guevara who was on a long list of people awaiting organ transplants, she would surely have died.

“I was lucky,” says Guevara. “A stranger gave me a healthy life and for that I will forever will be grateful.”

Today, Guevara’s story is commonplace among Hispanics in America where more than 20,000 Latinos are currently awaiting an organ transplant.

They are people like Carlos Aguilar, 20, of Hillsboro, Oregon, who has been on dialysis for several yearsâ€"but who recently learned that he will receive a kidney transplant next month.

Officials, though, say Latinos are among the 18 Americans of all ethnicities that die each dayâ€"more than 6,000 annuallyâ€"because of the shortage of qualified matches.

It is a crisis, they say, caused by misconceptions and cultural taboos.

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