Nov. 17--A Chicago Latino advocacy organization is making a plea on behalf of a father of six who needs a new kidney and as part of a broader appeal for people, particularly Hispanics, to join a living donor program.
The League of United Latin American Citizens held a news conference Sunday with six boys and girls, ages 3 to 13, who hope a donor will step forward to help their father, Isidro Secundino. The Michigan man has been undergoing dialysis in Chicago three times a week for three years and has been separated from his family.
"We don't see each other a lot," Nelly Secundino, 11, said Sunday after the news conference. "He doesn't live with us, which is hard for me and my brothers."
The family had planned for Isidro Secundino's wife, Maria Garnica, to donate her matching kidney, but those plans fell through earlier this year when doctors found she had low blood pressure, one weakened kidney and a noncancerous brain tumor.
A couple of weeks ago the family turned to Julie Contreras, who is chair of the Latino advocacy group's Illinois Immigration Affairs Committee, at a rally she held in the family's hometown of Grand Rapids, Mich., hoping that she could help them find a living donor.
"When I had six beautiful children all stand around me in tears, there was nothing more I could do than to just serve them," Contreras said. "I think every American child has the right to ask for help."
Their mother's ill health compounds the pain of separation from their father, Contreras said. When she visited the family's home, and the mother suffered a migraine, the older children immediately started taking care of the younger children.
"It was very sad to see," Contreras said. "All the children all kind of immediately knew what to do. ... (They have) such discipline. They suffer a lot, and yet they're so respectable."
Isidro Secundino, 40, said he is not only appealing on behalf of his family but on behalf of everyone who needs a donation.
"You can be a hero for those of us who are sick," he said in a phone interview.
In advocating for this family, Contreras hopes that people, especially in the Latino community, will overcome their fears of the medical system and consider becoming part of a living donor program.
"If you can be compassionate and you're healthy enough to do it, I think it's important for people to be educated about that," Contreras said.
As of Sunday, 123,936 people were on the wait list for organ donations nationwide, and the majority -- 101,898 -- were waiting for kidneys, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing, which oversees the national transplant system for the federal government.
Such great need produces public appeals for living donors, which sometimes prompt a flood of phone calls from people who do not follow through or don't realize that, due to their current health, they are not qualified to donate, said Yolanda Becker, director of the kidney and pancreas program at the University of Chicago Medical Center.
"Do a little bit of homework," Becker said. "It is a major surgery. ... We will not let someone donate who we think will develop kidney failure in the future."
The need varies depending on the region, but in Illinois, there were 5,450 people on the wait list for organ donation as of November, and the vast majority were waiting for kidney donations, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing. Last year there were 295 living donations in Illinois, according to the data.
In 2013, 4,453 patients died while waiting for a kidney transplant, according to the National Kidney Foundation website.
People interested in becoming a living kidney donor for Isidro Secundino can call Contreras at 773-682-3963. Donation information is also available at the National Kidney Foundation website, kidney.org.
mmrodriguez@tribune.com
