Organ donation lags among Hispanics

Gabbriel Atao’s driver’s license, which identified him as an organ donor, arrived at his Frisco home a week after his death. By then, the 17-year-old had fulfilled his life mission.

On Jan. 20, 2017, after leaving Frisco Heritage High School, Gabbriel accepted a friend’s invitation to ride his motorcycle.

According to Gabbriel’s mother, Amalia, as the motorcycle zoomed down the road, a car suddenly appeared in its path. The motorcycle driver swerved and lost control. The impact threw Gabbriel through the air.

Gabbriel — who wasn’t wearing the right helmet, according to his family — suffered a severe brain injury. He was pronounced dead hours later at a hospital. The motorcycle driver suffered no serious injuries.

“When I arrived at the hospital, I never imagined I would see my son dead,” Amalia said, her voice choked with tears.

The Atao family, originally from Peru, had to face the decision Gabbriel had made just months before the accident: Would he be an organ donor?

In Texas, Hispanics make up 40% of people waiting for a transplant but make up only 15% of the organ donor list.

According to Donate Life Texas, the state organ donation registry, last year was a record year for organ transplants, with 4,418. About 10,000 Texans are awaiting a life-saving transplant right now.

Rafael Zambrana, a family care development specialist with Southwest Transplant Alliance in Dallas, said several reasons make Hispanics hesitant to join the organ donor list.

“The religious aspect and the concept of what happens after death are heavily considered topics,” said Zambrana, who is of Honduran descent.

The Catholic Church on organ donation

Leaders of the Catholic Church, including Pope John Paul II and Pope Francis, have clarified the Vatican’s position regarding organ donation.

A survey by the Public Religion Research Institute contends Hispanic Catholics in 2022 accounted for more than 20% of all people with a religious affiliation in Texas.

In his Evangelium Vitae, Pope John Paul II affirmed organ donation as “offering a chance of health and even of life itself to the sick who sometimes have no other hope.”

Pope Francis expressed his support for organ donation, stating that “donation means looking at and going beyond oneself, beyond one’s individual needs and opening oneself generously to a wider good. Organ donation is not only an act of social responsibility, but also an expression of the universal fraternity which binds all men and women together.”

Zambrana said the lack of information and knowledge about becoming a donor also keeps Hispanics from signing up for organ donation lists.

“As Hispanics, we must understand that we need to have these types of conversations with our loved ones to define our position on the issue of organ donation,” Zambrana said. “Culturally, it’s something we must begin to do.”

Gabbriel’s interest in helping others started the conversation for the Atao family. When he obtained his driver’s license, Gabbriel registered as an organ donor.

In Texas, teens ages 15 –17 can register to be a donor beginning when they apply for their learner’s permit or first driver’s license. Children under 18 do not need parental permission to register, but a parent or guardian must affirm their decision.

Gabbriel’s family didn’t hesitate to fulfill the Heritage High junior’s wishes.

“My son was a boy full of life, a good student, a good brother, always attentive to seeing how he could help others,” said Jorge Atao, Gabbriel’s father.

After spending 24 hours in a hospital room connected to machines and receiving fluids to preserve his organs, doctors removed Gabbriel’s heart, lungs, liver, pancreas and kidneys.

Gabbriel died, but he and his family saved four lives.

The Atao family had no contact with any of the organ recipients, except for one who persistently searched for them.

That recipient passed away a couple of years ago.

“Deciding to donate his organs was a quick one; what took us a long time was accepting that Gabbriel was gone,” said his sister, Vannia.

Zambrana said families should have an organ donation plan in place before the loss of a loved one.

“Convincing a family to donate the organs of a loved one who has just passed away or is about to pass away is a very difficult task because by then the family is already deeply grieving,” Zambrana said. “Ideally, this conversation should be had long before then.”

Finding an organ donor can take a long time, as only 1% to 2% of those on the donor list meet all the strict criteria to do so.

“We get 90% of our registrations through the Department of Public Safety’s driver’s license offices around the state,” said Donate Life Texas executive director Chad Carroll.

For Angel Escalante, it worked the other way. In 2019, Escalante was obtaining a commercial driver’s license. To complete the process, he had to undergo a routine medical exam.

He felt in perfect physical condition, but his kidneys were quietly failing. Doctors told Escalante he had only a couple more months to live.

Dialysis wasn’t a viable option for him since one of his kidneys had turned into scar tissue. His only real chance for survival was a transplant.

Escalante’s sister, Crystal, frantically searched for a hospital to treat him.

After several hospitals rejected Escalante due to his insurance plan, she found help at Parkland Memorial.

“She [Crystal] kept going and going, she never quit,” said Escalante, now 35 years old.

Finding a donor took nine months. Escalante survived that long thanks to medication and, according to him, something bigger.

“That was by the grace of God how I did it,” said Escalante, who was born in Dallas but whose family is originally from Mexico.

“Many donors are needed to meet the need for organs, because not every donor’s organs can be used.”

“You would think, ‘okay, 10,000 people are awaiting a transplant, but you’ve got over 15 million registered. What’s the problem?’” Carroll said. “But the truth is that out of a thousand deaths, only one meets the conditions to become a donor.”

To increase his chances of receiving a kidney, Escalante was placed on the deceased donor list and the living donor list.

Twelve of his relatives and friends were tested as a potential kidney donor, but each was eliminated as they advanced through the process.

One emerged as a perfect match: his brother-in-law, Anton Palmer, Crystal’s husband.

“I never hesitated to donate a kidney for Angel,” said Palmer, a 36-year-old African American whose athleticism, good health, and blood type helped him become a match for his brother-in-law.

According to Donate Life America, organs are not matched based on race or ethnicity.

Organs are matched with people on the national transplant waiting list based on blood type, body size, how sick they are, donor distance, tissue type and time on the waiting list.

Because these are the factors considered in organ matching, patients frequently and successfully receive transplants from donors of different races and ethnicities.

“We knew the risks both of us would face,” Palmer said. “There was a chance Angel would reject my kidney, and I understood the risks of undergoing surgery to remove one of my kidneys.”

Being a living donor is ‘pure altruism’

Dr. Joe Lockridge, medical director of kidney transplantation at Parkland, emphasized the importance of becoming an organ donor.

“Angel’s story reminds us that we are all vulnerable to organ failure, which can have devastating consequences,” said Lockridge, who is also an associate professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center.

Palmer’s decision to donate one of his kidneys has allowed Escalante to return to work and enjoy more time with his family and loved ones.

“Living donation is a tremendous act of pure altruism; the impact is immeasurable,” Lockridge said.

Escalante received Palmer’s kidney in November 2020, but his sister still gets emotional when she remembers everything they’ve been through as a family.

“It was one of the hardest times of my life,” Crystal Palmer said.

“I’m thankful for my husband; he literally saved my brother’s life.”

In the Atao home, Gabbriel’s room is just as he left it on his last Friday morning.

Photographs of his schoolmates, a portrait with his girlfriend, a football helmet, and a TV screen remain. Only the bed has been removed.

Gabbriel loved running track and cross country and was also a National Honor Society and Student Council member.

In Gabbriel’s memory, his family established the Gabbriel Atao Memorial Endowed Scholarship to benefit Heritage High School students.

The house’s living room has a small table filled with Gabbriel’s pictures. Every night, before going to bed, Amalia Atao approaches the table to cherish the memory of his son.

“Gabbriel is still with us; he always will be,” she said.