obesity and heart disease. All increase the risk of kidney disease and heart disease. Access to healthcare may also play a role.
Always committed to helping others, Oliver Kellman is filled with gratitude that two organ donors donated the heart and kidney that saved his life. (Courtesy of Oliver Kellman)
“Some years before my transplant,” Kellman said, “I had been told by doctors that I had an enlarged heart that was probably caused due to untreated hypertension, which ran in my family. I did not know at the time, but both my parents had high blood pressure, hypertension, and my brother has hypertension.
How 2 Black Organ Transplant Recipients Beat The Odds
How 2 Black Organ Transplant Recipients Beat The Odds
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RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif. In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic in May 2020, Oliver Kellman’s heart and kidney failed. He required two transplants to survive.
When he went to the hospital on May 14, thinking he would probably need dialysis, he was told he needed a heart transplant within the next two or three weeks or “you won’t make it in the middle of COVID,” Kellman, an attorney and lobbyist, recalled.
For Kellman, a 6-foot-4-inch-tall black man, the odds of finding a donor organ match were slim. The number of African Americans in need of organ transplants outpaces the number of black donors.