Fewer donors, difficulty matching genes in immune systems among challenges.
They are less likely to be a match when a kidney becomes available.
Although organ transplants can occur between races, matches are more difficult to achieve for blacks. Transplant recipients must have similar genes in their immune systems to those of the donor. Otherwise, the body will reject the organ.
"The genetic makeup is so broad-based in African-Americans," said Dr. Marquetta Faulkner, chief of nephrology at Meharry Medical College. "African-Americans have a big mix of Caucasian, African — it just depends on your genetic makeup."
If more African-Americans signed up to be organ donors, their chances of receiving a match would improve.
Whites account for 68% of all organ donors, while African-Americans account for only 14%, according to the U.S. Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network. Although the number of blacks and whites waiting for a kidney in 2011 was about the same, whites received just over half of kidney transplants that year, while blacks received less than a third.
Robert Edwards and wife, Vanessa, are both on dialysis. They were first diagnosed with diabetes and then high blood pressure. He says prayer helped them stop craving sugar and change their diets, but blood pressure proved to be a bigger challenge.
"She was under a lot of stress because of my health issues," he said. "That led to high blood pressure for her."
He went into kidney failure, then she did. They started dialysis in their 40s. He has been on a waiting list for a kidney for five years.
Yvonne Kennedy decided against trying to get on the waiting list. She has been on dialysis for more than nine years.
"I may have gave it a thought, but that's all it was, a thought," she said.
Undergoing dialysis is like holding a part-time job. It requires three trips to a clinic each week for treatments that last three to four hours as a machine draws blood, cleanses it of wastes and then pumps it back into the body.
The same patients go for treatments at the same times.
"We sit around and we talk," Kennedy said. "We talk about religion. We talk about the news. We talk about food. They tell me about their children and their families. We talk about my family as well. We're just like one big happy family."
Jokes are always welcome.
"If you don't laugh with it, you wind up crying and being very depressed," she said.
The banter trails off as people start watching their favorite TV shows or simply fall asleep.
Kidney failures soar
Diabetes, which is the leading cause of kidney failure nationally, overworks people's kidneys until they wear out, while high blood pressure damages the small vessels in the kidneys.
Although slim people can have high blood pressure and diabetes, being overweight increases the odds. People can reduce risk by exercising, watching their diet and cutting back on salt. Early treatment can prevent kidney damage.
People can live for decades on dialysis, but that requires following a strict diet, limiting fluid intake, not missing treatment sessions and not succumbing to a complication from end-stage renal disease.
"I literally went into dialysis kicking and screaming, but once I started doing it, it wasn't a bad experience," Edwards said. "The only thing that really concerned me was that I saw a lot of people die."
I don't know and I'm talking about organ transplants not bone marrow or what have you. Those can be transferred to another human's body regardless of race if they have the same blood type, it matches etc.
So yeah chances are it won't work. Now I remember my friends mom needed a heart transplant but the majority of the hearts they might have were either white or something else and few black people so it wouldn't work.
