Nurse Creates Kidney Transplant Program for Latino Immigrants from Abroad

Many times, when a Latin American immigrant is in dire need of a kidney transplant, a family member back home is usually the patient’s only option for an organ.  While these family members are willing to donate the kidney, it is not always feasible to get the organ to the patient on time, as delays at U.S. borders are frequent. 

Because of this, in addition to low organ donation rates among the large Latino community in Newark , NJ served by Beth Israel Medical Center , Columbian immigrant Tatiana Alvarez, a registered nurse at Beth Israel, created a program called "The Facilitation Program for International Living Donors."

Under the program, if one of Nurse Alvarez’ patients has located a kidney donor in a Latin American country, she will contact the transplant center that’s nearest to the donor and request that it conduct organ-compatibility tests on the donor.  If a match is established, Nurse Alvarez uses the test results to send a letter to the U.S. embassy in the donor’s country requesting that the donor be admitted to the U.S. for the transplant surgery.  So far, five of Nurse Alvarez’s patients have received kidneys from an overseas donor through the program.

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