Post by Okwes on Sept 13, 2006 15:53:45 GMT -5
Tradition, faith make some American Indians wary of transplant surgery
www.freenewmexican.com/news/49038.html
<http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/49038.html>
By JACKIE JADRNAK | Associated Press
September 11, 2006
ALBUQUERQUE (AP) - Regina Vicenti surprised Presbyterian Hospital
workers with one of her first questions after her kidney transplant:
"When can I have Brussels sprouts?"
"It's the first time we ever had anybody asking for Brussels sprouts,"
social worker Susan Shaffer said.
Vicenti's diet had been limited by dialysis, which she started in
January 2005.
"The vegetable I really, really missed, and couldn't have, was Brussels
sprouts," said Vicenti, perched on the edge of her hospital bed a week
after her July 27 surgery.
The ability to enjoy favorite foods is just one benefit of what the
43-year-old woman calls her new life, with freedom from dialysis
treatments that took four hours out of every Monday, Wednesday and
Friday.
Born of a Zuni father and Navajo mother, Vicenti wanted to tell her
story to help make other American Indians aware of the benefits of organ
donations both giving and receiving. Some patients at her Farmington
dialysis center have been there for years because they didn't think it
was right to take one, she said.
"They say if you take body parts, (the donor doesn't) go to the spirit
world. You're supposed to go whole," she said.
Vicenti said she initially felt uneasy about the idea of having another
person's kidney, but as she learned more, it made sense. Then she was
ready, only to learn most people wait five to seven years for a
transplant.
She was lucky. She got hers after being listed for eight months. The
kidney of a 42-year-old man in North Carolina was a perfect match.
Vicenti said she thinks about what he might have looked like, and how
his family had the courage to donate his organs after he died.
"I'm very, very happy they did," she said. "I thank God every day."
Kidneys can be donated by living people we have two and can get by with
one. Vicenti said her father and two nieces wanted to donate one of
theirs. But her father has diabetes and heart disease, and her nieces
are young women with their child-bearing years still ahead of them, she
said.
In New Mexico, about 550 people are waiting for organ transplants, and
79 percent are minorities, according to New Mexico Donor Services. Of
264 waiting for a kidney, 88 are American Indian and 108 are Hispanic.
Those ethnicities are more prone to diabetes, a disease Vicenti was
diagnosed with when she was 13. It's taken the sight in her left eye,
and it weakened her kidneys until they couldn't function. She receives
disability payments and has lived for 14 years with "a wonderful man"
who owns a car dealership, she said.
The main symptom of her kidney disease was fatigue. Even as she told of
her problems, Vicenti was upbeat, an irrepressible laugh punctuating
many of her comments. When asked how having a new kidney would change
her life, her eyes welled with tears.
"I love my mom and dad a lot. It was hard not getting to see them a
lot," she said in a choked voice. "My dad is 73 and my mom is 75. They
live in Window Rock ... the hardest part was not being with them."
___
On the Net: Donate Life New Mexico www.DonateLifeNM.org
<http://www.donatelifenm.org/>
www.freenewmexican.com/news/49038.html
<http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/49038.html>
By JACKIE JADRNAK | Associated Press
September 11, 2006
ALBUQUERQUE (AP) - Regina Vicenti surprised Presbyterian Hospital
workers with one of her first questions after her kidney transplant:
"When can I have Brussels sprouts?"
"It's the first time we ever had anybody asking for Brussels sprouts,"
social worker Susan Shaffer said.
Vicenti's diet had been limited by dialysis, which she started in
January 2005.
"The vegetable I really, really missed, and couldn't have, was Brussels
sprouts," said Vicenti, perched on the edge of her hospital bed a week
after her July 27 surgery.
The ability to enjoy favorite foods is just one benefit of what the
43-year-old woman calls her new life, with freedom from dialysis
treatments that took four hours out of every Monday, Wednesday and
Friday.
Born of a Zuni father and Navajo mother, Vicenti wanted to tell her
story to help make other American Indians aware of the benefits of organ
donations both giving and receiving. Some patients at her Farmington
dialysis center have been there for years because they didn't think it
was right to take one, she said.
"They say if you take body parts, (the donor doesn't) go to the spirit
world. You're supposed to go whole," she said.
Vicenti said she initially felt uneasy about the idea of having another
person's kidney, but as she learned more, it made sense. Then she was
ready, only to learn most people wait five to seven years for a
transplant.
She was lucky. She got hers after being listed for eight months. The
kidney of a 42-year-old man in North Carolina was a perfect match.
Vicenti said she thinks about what he might have looked like, and how
his family had the courage to donate his organs after he died.
"I'm very, very happy they did," she said. "I thank God every day."
Kidneys can be donated by living people we have two and can get by with
one. Vicenti said her father and two nieces wanted to donate one of
theirs. But her father has diabetes and heart disease, and her nieces
are young women with their child-bearing years still ahead of them, she
said.
In New Mexico, about 550 people are waiting for organ transplants, and
79 percent are minorities, according to New Mexico Donor Services. Of
264 waiting for a kidney, 88 are American Indian and 108 are Hispanic.
Those ethnicities are more prone to diabetes, a disease Vicenti was
diagnosed with when she was 13. It's taken the sight in her left eye,
and it weakened her kidneys until they couldn't function. She receives
disability payments and has lived for 14 years with "a wonderful man"
who owns a car dealership, she said.
The main symptom of her kidney disease was fatigue. Even as she told of
her problems, Vicenti was upbeat, an irrepressible laugh punctuating
many of her comments. When asked how having a new kidney would change
her life, her eyes welled with tears.
"I love my mom and dad a lot. It was hard not getting to see them a
lot," she said in a choked voice. "My dad is 73 and my mom is 75. They
live in Window Rock ... the hardest part was not being with them."
___
On the Net: Donate Life New Mexico www.DonateLifeNM.org
<http://www.donatelifenm.org/>