Richton Park resident Pamela Carpenter is awaiting a double lung transplant, but she has not let her health battles take away her happiness and independence. (Photo Courtesy of Pamela Carpenter)
There’s often trepidation amongst African Americans when it comes to organ donation. Many Blacks are apprehensive about donating organs because of their fear and unfamiliarity with the process. Moreover, there’s a myth circulating in the community that in a life-threatening emergency, a patient will not receive the best medical treatment if they are a known organ donor.
But African-Americans are at increased risk for high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease—all of which can lead to organ failure and increase the need for organ transplants, according to information released by Secretary of State Jesse White’s office.
Blacks compose 12 percent of the total U.S. population, 29 percent of people waiting for organ transplants, 16 percent of all donors and 21 percent of all those who receive organ transplants.
Although ethnicity and race are not determining factors in donations, the success rates of transplants increase when organs are matched between members of the same ethnic and racial group.
Read more: http://www.thechicagocitizen.com/local-news/south-suburban/the-importance-of-organ-donation-in-the-black-community/
{Register to be an organ,eye and tissue donor. To learn how, www.donatelife.net or www.organdonor.gov}
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