By Erika Flores and Carmen Sesin -
NBC News
Anel Aguirre was born with only one kidney and, over time, her health began to deteriorate.
When she was 12 years old, she received a transplant.
"Since I started dialysis until I received the organ, I waited a month," says Aguirre, who is now 38 years old.
In the United States there are more than 100 million people waiting for a transplant and 60% are minorities, according to One Legacy Foundation, a group that has advocated for organ donation since 2011.
The kidneys are the most demanded organ.
Although Hispanics are among the groups most in need of transplants, they are among the most reluctant to register to be donors.
A person carries a box to transport a newly donated organ.NBC News
Mexican-Americans, who make up a large portion of the Latino population, are disproportionately obese, which can contribute to diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease, according to the Office of Minority Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. USA.
These conditions put people at risk for organ failure.
"We have many minorities on the waiting list because we usually suffer from diabetes and other diseases that affect the kidneys," explains Tania Llavaneras, representative of One Legacy.
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Seventeen patients die every day because the organ they need is not available on time.
"One in five people waiting for a transplant to save their lives is Hispanic," added Llavaneras.
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August is National Minority Donor Awareness Month, and organizations use it to draw attention to the gap between the number of organ donors and the number of Latinos, Blacks, and Asian Americans who need organs and tissues to save. their lives.
There are challenges, such as language barriers, to convincing Latinos to offer to donate organs.
The myths that circulate among the community are one of the biggest obstacles.
The number of Hispanics receiving organ transplants in 2020 was approximately 30% of the number of Hispanics currently on the waiting list
.
The number of white people receiving transplants was 48.8% of the number currently waiting, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.
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Carolina Rivera, a mother of three children, recounts that two of her children, who were 22 and 45 years old when they died, donated their organs, each one helping more than 70 people.
"My children continue to live in more than 70 people because they donated tissues, their corneas, their bones, their skin," said Rivera.
Each person can save eight lives by donating their kidneys, pancreas, liver, heart, lungs and intestines.
Tissue donors can improve the lives of up to 75 people when they donate their corneas, skin, bones, heart valves, and more.
People can also donate while still alive and manage to save two patients.