Minority Donor Awareness Day

AUGUST 1 is National Minority Donor Awareness Day! This observance is designed to increase awareness for the need of organ and tissue donors, especially among minority groups. Did you know that in 2008, only 14% of all donors were African-American, and just over 13% were Hispanic? Less than 3% of all donors in 2008 were Asian.

According to UNOS, some diseases of the kidney, heart, lung, pancreas and liver are found more frequently in racial and ethnic minority populations. For example, African-Americans, Asians and Pacific Islanders, and Hispanics are three times more likely to suffer from end-stage renal disease than Caucasians. Native Americans are four times more likely than Caucasians to suffer from diabetes.

Successful transplantation often is enhanced by the matching of organs between members of the same ethnic and racial group. Therefore, a shortage of organs donated by minorities can contribute to death and longer waiting periods for minorities waiting for transplants.

To become an organ donor today, visit www.transplants.org and click on the Transplant Challenge logo.

The Truth About Organ Donation

• Anyone can be an organ donor, regardless of age, race or medical history.
• All major religions in the United States support organ donation.
• Organ donors can still have open-casket funerals.
• Organ donation doesn't cost the donor's family any money.
• If an individual is hospitalized, medical staff will provide the best possible care, whether or not the patient is an organ donor. In fact, the transplant team is completely separate from the medical team and won't even be called unless a patient is declared brain dead.
• Donors are needed for all ethnic groups. Transplant success rates increase when organs are matched between members of the same ethnic background.

Right now, 101,884 people are waiting for a lifesaving transplant. Because of the vast shortage of organ donors, 18 people die each day waiting for a transplant in the United States. In an effort to help alleviate this problem, NFT recently kicked off the Transplant Challenge! We hope to raise $100,000 to support transplant patients and add 100,000 new names to the donor registry.

Accept the Transplant Challenge today!