Mercedes Olivera/ Dallas Morning News

Latinos will donate their hearts, kidneys and livers - if they're asked.

The problem is not enough hospitals are asking.

Organ donation rates among Latinos in Dallas are at record levels. Last year, about 75 percent to 80 percent of Latino families said yes when asked to donate the organs of a loved one who died suddenly.

That's the nation's highest consent rate. Nationally, Latinos have a consent
rate of 48 percent.

But as National Minority Donor Day approaches Aug. 1, that's still not enough, say the folks at the Southwest Transplant Alliance in Dallas.

In Texas, for example, 35 percent of organ donors are Latinos. But they represent more than 46 percent of those needing kidneys - 1,791 out of 3,855.

Of the more than 85,000 people waiting for organs across the country, 57,581
need new kidneys. About 34,972 - 60 percent - of those needing kidney transplants belong to ethnic or racial groups.

But only about 13 percent of all organ donors are Hispanic or black. And kidney transplants require more intricate matching among people with similar genetic backgrounds. Many non-whites, therefore, end up waiting longer for a perfect match.

Quite often, as officials at the Southwest Transplant Alliance have seen, it's not that Latinos don't donate enough. It's that not enough of them are being asked to donate.

Last year, only 18 percent to 21 percent of all the families who were approached were Latino or black. The agency serves about half the state.

"There is still a pervasive belief at many hospitals that minorities just don't donate," said Pam Silvestri, community education director at the Southwest Transplant Alliance. The most recent numbers now show that "that's just not true anymore."

It all depends, however, on who asks the families and how they are asked.

Mary Bauchert, a Latina who is a family support specialist at the transplant alliance, said she approaches Latino families as if they were her own. She gets to know each of them by name and asks them how much information they've been given about the life-and-death situation.

Many are dealing with difficult emotions and, naturally, are having trouble accepting the imminent or sudden death of a family member. Once she establishes a trusting relationship, she said, she waits to see if they have accepted the finality of the moment before asking them to save someone else's life.

"I try to provide a silver lining for them," Mrs. Bauchert said. "It's kind of like giving them a net to land on. I give them something positive so they can feel that their loved one can leave a legacy behind."

This method has made her a much-coveted trainer around the country. Organ donation agencies invite her regularly to teach their staffs on how to talk to families.

In addition, Ms. Silvestri said the Southwest alliance is organizing meetings with doctors and nurses at hospitals so that they can hear organ donors talk about their experiences.

"They need to hear the organ donors say, 'We're so glad we donated,' so that they will change the misconceptions they might have about these donors," she said.

She said Rebecca Moreno, who lost two children and donated their organs, is a good example.

Ms. Moreno said it was a decision she has never regretted. The organs of her 13-year-old son, Teodulo Colunga, went to save the life of a 61-year-old Garland man in 1999.

"It helped me make closure," said Ms. Moreno, a Grand Prairie resident.

"But it also made me feel really good that a part of him is still alive."