Waiting for the Gift of Life

Increasing Number of African Americans on Waiting List for Organ Donation

November 8, 2005

Organ donation is the only hope for thousands of people who suffer from organ failure. According to the Coalition on Donation, there are more than 86,000 men, women and children that are waiting for a life-saving transplant. Approximately 35 percent of all patients waiting for a kidney transplant are African American. On top of that, every 13 minutes, another name is added to the waiting list. Even more disturbing is the fact that an average of 17 people die each day because there are not enough organ donors.

For minorities, the shortage in organ donation is particularly significant. Startling statistics show that: Two of the leading causes of kidney failure - high blood pressure and diabetes - affect African Americans at a higher rate than European Americans. It's primarily because of these health issues why African Americans make up a great deal of kidney dialysis patients in the United States.

Moreover, some diseases of the kidney, heart, lung, pancreas and liver are found more frequently in racial and ethnic minority populations than in the general population. For example, African Americans and other minorities are three times more likely to suffer from end-stage renal disease than Whites. Some of these diseases are best treated through transplantation; and others can only be treated through transplantation.

Given that transplant success rates increase when organs are matched between members of the same ethnic and racial group, many African Americans with kidney failure can only accept a transplanted kidney from an African American organ donor. This means that a lack of organs donated by minorities can contribute to death and longer waiting periods for transplants for minorities.

Your decision to be an organ and tissue donor is very important. Just one donor can improve or save the lives of up to 50 people. We must increase the number of African American organ donors so that well-matched organ transplants are available for African Americans.

Dr. Ronald Ferguson, Chief of Division of Transplant Surgery at Ohio State University perhaps said it best: "There's no place in life, with the exception of organ donation, where you are going to find someone giving part of themselves to someone else to make them better."

With a concentration on organ donation, maybe the wait for the gift of life does not have to be so long!

Copyright © 2001-2005 Black PRWire.

This article posted December 3, 2005.