Latinos high on organ transplant waiting list but many fear becoming donors

Oregon Live | Andrea Castillo


Photo courtesy of Carlos Aguilar: Carlos Aguilar, 20, of Hillsboro, will receive a kidney transplant on Oct. 22. He was diagnosed with kidney disease in 2008

Carlos Aguilar, 20, of Hillsboro sees a doctor so often that he calls the medical clinic he regularly frequents his second home.

Aguilar, who has kidney disease, has been at the clinic for about 10 hours every week for the last two years. There, his slight frame is hooked up to a dialysis machine that filters toxins out of his blood and removes excess liquid – a job his kidneys would do if they worked at more than 5 percent of the normal rate.

Aguilar is one of more than 20,000 Latinos in the United States awaiting an organ transplant. In Oregon, they are the second-highest ethnic group on the transplant waiting list, after Caucasians. Of the 99 Latinos on that list, 89 need a kidney.

But for a variety of reasons, including cultural taboos, Latinos fear being organ donors -- therefore limiting opportunities for others.

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