Illegal aliens donate more organs than they get Associated Press EL PASO - Only about 1 percent of all U.S. transplants in 2001 were performed for undocumented immigrants, while about 2 percent of all deceased organ donors were undocumented, according to statistics from national organ sharing organizations. One percent of the approximately 24,000 total transplants in 2001 were conducted on undocumented immigrants. In the same year, 2 percent of the roughly 6,000 deceased organ donors, about twice the rate of those who received the transplants, were from undocumented immigrants, the El Paso Times reported Sunday, citing numbers from the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), based in Richmond, Va. "Every single day in our country, there are donors who are (undocumented immigrants)," Pam Silvestri, a spokeswoman for the Southwest Transplant Alliance in Dallas, told the newspaper. After the death of Jesica Santillan, the 17-year-old Mexican girl whose parents moved to the United States to get better treatment for their daughter, some people were angered that the family was in the country illegally. Santillan died last month after a botched transplant at Duke University Medical Center. And some questioned whether an undocumented immigrant should receive treatment when U.S. citizens are on waiting lists for the same organs. Silvestri said she has received profanity laced e-mails from people angry that Santillan received the two heart-lung transplants. "One lady said I want to donate my organs, but only to Americans," she said. Transplant hospitals can perform organ transplants for a maximum of 5 percent of their patients who are not U.S. citizens -- a group that includes undocumented immigrants -- according to UNOS and the Southwest Transplant Alliance. The policy was adopted by organ donor agencies nationwide. The total number of organ donors in 2001 who were not U.S. citizens was 297, including 124 undocumented immigrants. The total number of transplants for non U.S. citizens was 803, including 258 for undocumented immigrants. Donated organs are retrieved at U.S. hospitals from undocumented immigrants who died while in this country, sometimes as the result of an accident, said Thomason spokeswoman Margaret Althoff Olivas. Hospitals work with the Immigration and Naturalization Service to find relatives who can give permission for the procedure. "Mexico and Central America are backward when it comes to having the medical staffs and organs available for organ transplants, so I understand whey this (Santillan's) family traveled to the United States for medical care," said El Pasoan Luis Quiroz, who is alive today because of a heart transplant. Quiroz, a 43-year-old agricultural engineer, waited 100 days for his heart. El Pasoan Newton Phillips, a retired military veteran, understands the girl's plight but is concerned about the limited number of organs available. "I hate to say it, and having grown up here, I'm not racist or anything like that, but I do feel that we need to take care of our own first when it comes to organ transplants in this country," Phillips said. "It's sad, and it hurt me to see that little girl die, but we must take care of our own first." Harry "Hut" Brown, a retired El Paso school administrator, said he's opposed to undocumented immigrants using El Paso's Thomason Hospital for non-emergency care, but makes an exception for lifesaving organ transplants. "I feel that if they're here because they can't find this kind of care in their country, and if they are facing an emergency, then it would be inhumane to turn them away," he said. In Juarez, Mexico, just across the Rio Grande from El Paso, none of the hospitals perform organ transplants. The nearest facility in the state of Chihuahua equipped for the sophisticated procedures is 240 miles south of the border in Chihuahua City. Sierra Medical Center is the only El Paso hospital that performs transplants, and it only does kidneys. The hospital performed about 30 kidney transplants last year, and none of them involved undocumented immigrants, said Sierra spokesman Rene Hurtado. "The fact is we don't have enough donors for all the organs that are needed," said Dr. Hector Diaz Luna, who performs kidney transplants in El Paso. "There are about 55,000 people on the waiting list, and almost 70 percent of those people are waiting for a kidney." ------------ who would've thunk it?
Remember this article: http://www.jewishworldreview.com/michelle/malkin022103.asp Just emailed the Associated Press story to Michelle Malkin and asked her if she would prefer if we sent the organs donated by illegal immigrants to their country of origin. Of course, Ms. Malkin would then have to wait even longer for her heart transplant.
