By Erica Molina Johnson / El Paso Times

Posted: 08/08/2009 12:00:00 AM MDT

EL PASO -- It was obvious that Dr. Hector Diaz-Luna had done something special by the greetings he received while walking the halls of Las Palmas Medical Center on Friday afternoon.

It seemed that everyone he came across was excited to stop him and shake his hand. They congratulated him for pulling off something the hospital had wanted for years.

That morning, he completed the first kidney transplant in El Paso in two years.

It was the first ever at the hospital.

"I'm very excited. Finally, we see that it's done. It's not just on paper," said Diaz-Luna, medical director of the hospital's Kidney Transplant Program. "Now we've done the first one, and we'll continue to do it."

He previously performed the surgery at Sierra Medical Center until that program ended in 2007. The procedure had not been available in El Paso since then.

During Friday morning's operation, Dr. Jorge Acosta removed the left kidney from a woman using a laparoscopic procedure. The kidney was cleaned and transplanted into her brother by Diaz-Luna.

The siblings were doing well that afternoon and were expected to be discharged from the hospital in a few days.

More details about the two were not available.

Diaz-Luna said he thought the transplant program at Las Palmas would eventually grow to perform 40 to 50 kidney transplants a year.

"The most important part is creating a lot more awareness about organ donation, both deceased donors and living donors," he said.

Living donations are vital to helping the approximately 80,000 Americans waiting for kidneys, he said.

About 1,600 people are on dialysis in El Paso, he said, and many others have chronic kidney disease.

About 100 people are on the waiting list for kidney transplants locally.

Leo Chavez, an administrative director at the hospital, said patients were relieved to know there's a local option for the surgery. Patients have been traveling to cities such as San Antonio, Dallas, Albuquerque and Houston to get the procedure.

"The hard work pays off when the community wins, and our community is winning," she said. "To travel 600 miles to the closest transplant center isn't an option for a lot of people."

For more information about becoming a living donor, call the hospital's transplant center at 521-1937. For more information on organ donation, visit www.donatelifetexas.org or www.organ.org.