New England Donor Services: Hispanic patients highlight barriers to organ transplants and donation
When Marco Santana was 21, he lost his kidneys to strep throat, of all things. He spent more than a decade on dialysis while waiting for a new kidney. Santana, a Puerto Rican American, didn’t know much about transplants.
“I got a kidney transplant from a cadaver, and that, like I tell people, it kind of changed my whole world,” he said. Santana, now 48, called the biggest barrier one of “health literacy,” and said there was a lot of fear and misinformation in the Latino community about transplants.
Those are some of a number of hurdles organizations like the New England Donor Services are trying to raise awareness of during Hispanic Heritage Month, which runs through Oct. 15.
Read more here: https://www.wgbh.org/news/health/2024-10-04/hispanic-patients-highlight-barriers-to-organ-transplants-and-donation