7-year-old Boy among 20,000 Latinos on Kidney Transplant List

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More than 20,000 U.S. Latinos are on kidney transplant lists, struggling to survive as they wait for a potential life-saving organ donation.

Just like 7-year-old Anthony Rivera.

The family of Anthony, who live in Illinois, took him to the doctor after he was too fatigued to play outside and had swollen eyes. They found out he was experiencing renal failure due to kidney disease.

He has to get peritoneal dialysis three times a week and his teacher now home-schools him—often in the hospital.

“I wake him up at five in the morning and we are back home by 10 a.m.,” said Josefina Rivera, his mother. “He lays down to rest and after sleeping a bit, he gets back up to greet his teacher.”

As the Latino population continues to grow, so does the waiting list and the critical need for Latino donors and their families to support organ donation.

To celebrate National Kidney and Diabetes Month, the organization Gift of Hope has a message from people who like the Rivera family are in need of a miracle: “Donation is a beautiful gift, and if we can share life with others, we should not waste the opportunity.”

The organization has donation information in English and Spanish.

“One encounters many people who believe they cannot register to become donors because they have diabetes or any other illnesses, and this is not true,” said Raiza Mendoza, Gift of Hope’s manager of Hispanic affairs. “We should all register and leave it up to the doctors to determine what can be donated and what cannot when the moment arises.”