Bryan woman's struggle highlights need for organ donations

By Laura Hensley

Eagle Staff Writer

December 24, 2007

Bryan code enforcement Officer Esmeralda Romero has been waiting for a kidney transplant for a year

Esmeralda Romero has been waiting a year for a stranger to save her life.

The 47-year-old is one of the more than 94,000 people in the country who are awaiting an organ transplant. Romero, who is a code enforcement officer for the city of Bryan, was diagnosed with a hereditary kidney disease last year and has been living with about 8 percent kidney function ever since.

"The waiting is very stressful," she said. "It's scary. When I start to feel pain in my kidneys, I don't know if this is it."

Last year, Romero went to the doctor with what she thought were symptoms of the common cold. But the doctor was concerned and ordered a series of tests.

When the test results came back the next day, the doctor had Romero admitted to the hospital immediately.

A day later, she was diagnosed with kidney disease.

The single mother of two teenagers continues to work her job patrolling the city and leading the Spanish Citizen Police Academy each year. She is not on dialysis for her renal failure but could be placed on the invasive treatment if she does not receive a transplant soon. It's an option that frightens her. Her mother died from the same disease two years ago after years of dialysis treatment.

"I'm scared to death of dialysis," she said. "I'm afraid if I go on it, I'll never get off."

The only chance Romero has of recovery is with a donated kidney.

But the supply is limited, mostly because too few people have discussed organ donation with their families before death. Last year, 939 people became donors in Texas, according to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network. Although donations have increased in recent years, officials with the Southwest Transplant Alliance, the nonprofit tissue donor program that serves hospitals across Texas, are trying to bolster the odds.

A new online registry called the Donor Education Awareness and Registry Program of Texas is available at www.TexasDear.org. The site, which came online in September, was created to help people communicate their intent to become organ or tissue donors. But it is still important to talk to your family about your decision about donation, said Pam Silvestri of the Southwest Transplant Alliance.

"The more people we get talking about this and signed up, the less people have to wait," she said.

But simply signing a donor card or registering does not mean that a person will automatically become a donor. It is the person's family that makes the decision, she said.

Silvestri said the holidays provide an opportunity to talk with your family about your wishes.

"This is the perfect time to do it," she said. "Not only are you gathering together with your family, but it's the time of giving. [Organ donation] is a gift that costs nothing but can do more than anything else for a person who needs it."

Silvestri suggests raising the topic of organ donation with your family by focusing on the positive aspects instead of mentioning your own death.

"Do not talk about death," she said. "That will cut the conversation off right there."

Instead, Silvestri suggested talking about how donated organs save lives.

"Focus on the positives," she said.

For Romero, a new kidney would mean a new chance at life.

"[Being an organ donor] will make a true impact," she said. "We all can be heroes in our own little ways. Your life can have meaning, but it would be so much more if you were to pass on the gift of life."

Copyright © 2000-2006 The Bryan-College Station Eagle.

This article posted January 14, 2006.