According to New Mexico Donor Services’ website, they served 90 organ donors in 2024 whose gifts resulted in 207 lifesaving organ transplants. Scott Brocato recently spoke with Celina Espinoza, External Affairs and Business Development Director for New Mexico Donor Services, about the importance of becoming an organ donor, and what organs are needed the most in New Mexico.
Scott Brocato:
Talk about New Mexico Donor Services and what you do.
Celina Espinoza:
So we are the local nonprofit that makes organ donation happen in our state. We service the whole state of New Mexico, and we connect lifesaving gifts from donor heroes through the transplant list across the nation.
We do wrap-around services for organ donation. We do everything from walk along the bedside of a donor hero; walk their family through the donation process and ask the question on if they would like their person to become an organ donor; and then walk them through the logistics of organ donation. We then schedule the transplant and the recipient (who will) be able to receive those lifesaving gifts, figure out where those lifesaving gifts are going for the national wait list, and then the logistics surrounding that. Sometimes that's putting a kidney on a pump and taking it downtown to the University of New Mexico Hospital. Sometimes that's putting a heart on a pump and sending it all the way to Boston. So it just really depends on where that organ is placed and where it is going, those logistics. And then we do aftercare services.
So we do wrap around brief services for our families, and we say it's a really hard family to be a part of. But we really want to embrace you and make sure that you are doing okay following the death of your donor hero, (and) also helping to perpetuate their legacy because it's a giant gift, and one that keeps continuing life for somebody else and has a dramatic impact on our community as a whole.
Scott Brocato:
There's been an increase in the number of registered New Mexico organ donors. It increased from 53 to 56% in 2024. Can you attribute that to anything?
Celina Espinoza:
I think education. We have a lot of amazing donor families who are sharing their stories. They talk about how hard it is to lose someone, but then you get to see the legacy that that hero leaves behind and the impact that person has on the recipient and their families. Just educating people about what organ donation means, why you might want to do it, and really looking at some of the frequently asked questions that people may hesitate to become registered organ donors.
The first one we get is that you're too old. You're never too old to register as an organ donor. The oldest organ donor is actually 94, and they transplanted his liver into a 30-year-old woman. And she lived with that liver for another 30 years. But really comes down to the health of your organs and where they can be used. So don't ever let “Ohh, I'm too old. Nobody's gonna need that.” Or, “you won't want to use mine anymore. I worked them too hard.” That's not the case. It really comes down to the health of your organs.
The other (frequently asked question) is that maybe you have a precursor. Not all things are a rule-out. Some people think diabetes is an automatic rule-out. It's not. There's something else that we might be able to utilize. Just let the doctors make the decision. Register still, and let the doctor make that decision.
And then the third most frequent (question) we get is that medical professionals won't save your life if you are a registered organ donor. And actually, the opposite is true. We put sometimes even more lifesaving efforts into you, because we have to stabilize a body and ensure that that system is still continuing to work while we work to find those matches, and there are times that we've seen people recover because we've given extra effort and put extra momentum into helping stabilize a person because they were an organ donor.
Scott Brocato:
Do you have numbers about how many lives are saved daily, both in New Mexico and nationally?
Celina Espinoza:
So across the nation, 130 lives are saved every day, thanks to organ donors. I say you can't take it with you, so you might as well be able to help save somebody and save somebody who's in need. Right now in New Mexico, there's about 400 people waiting for a lifesaving transplant, and we save as New Mexicans around 3 lives every single day in our state because of amazing donor heroes.
Scott Brocato:
What organs are particularly needed currently?
Celina Espinoza:
Most people don't know, but in New Mexico we only have kidney transplant centers, though UNM downtown and Presbyterian downtown are both kidney transplant centers. So everybody who's on a waiting list in New Mexico is likely waiting for a kidney. They could be waiting for a kidney and pancreas, or a kidney in a liver. But everybody on our waiting list is waiting for a kidney. If you need a heart, lungs, liver, something else, you're going somewhere else, and you're usually listed somewhere else, likely Colorado, Texas, Arizona. But across the nation, the most organ that is needed are kidneys. And the thing about that is, everybody has two kidneys; so you could be a living kidney donor and donate a kidney right now if you felt the calling to do so and save a life by helping somebody who's in dire need of a kidney.
The reason for that (need for a kidney) in our state is a lot of people are (prone) to diabetes. It's just in our genes, genetically. A lot of Hispanic population, New Mexicans, Native Americans, are precursor to diabetes, and diabetes can often lead to kidney disease. And kidney disease, about half the time, leads to kidney failure, and that means you would need a lifesaving kidney transplant.
Scott Brocato:
Where can folks register to become an organ donor, and where can you find more information about becoming an organ donor?
Celina Espinoza:
So anytime you go get your driver's license or ID, the very first question they ask is, do you want to be an organ donor? And then you can register anytime at registerme.org. Something that's interesting there is, if you register at registerme.org, you can make specifications. So say you're not wanting to donate your corneas, but you're happy to donate your heart and your liver; you can specify that on that registry. But on the state registry, you can't make some of those accommodations. You're just saying yes to everything, which we hope you will do. But it's a very personal decision. So if you have...I don't know, a thing that's stopping you or you would be happy to donate your kidneys and maybe not your heart, at registerme.org. You can make those specifications.
Scott Brocato:
Celina, thank you so much for joining us today to talk about this with KRWG Public Media.
Celina Espinoza:
You're welcome. And I just want to remind people to visit donatelifenm.org if they have any questions and we hope that you'll visit us there and get more information.
