Local transplant doctor encourages Hispanic community to sign up for registry

More than 100,000 people in the U.S. are waiting for a life-saving organ donation.

Donate Life America says over half of them are from multicultural backgrounds.

This August, St. Josephs is encouraging Arizona’s Hispanic community to add their names to the donor list.

The CDC says Hispanics are more likely than other races to have kidney disease and nonfatty liver disease, but St. Joseph's said there is a lower percentage of Hispanics on the donor registry.

A kidney transplant coordinator says diversity in the donor pool significantly increases the ability to perform successful organ transplants.

“A transplant can be successful whether it’s a Caucasian to an African-American or a Caucasian to a Hispanic," Gabriel Quiroz said. "However we do match based on genetic makeup. So scientifically speaking we can have a better, longer lasting organ if the genetic makeup is closer.”

Easy ways to get added to the donor registry are to go to the Arizona MVD or sign up on the Arizona state registry online .

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