Source: nbcdfw.com

About 9,000 Texans — half of whom are Hispanic — are waiting for a kidney transplant, according to Baylor Scott & White Health, which now offers services for Hispanic patients in need of a kidney transplant. The Hispanic kidney transplant program is the first kidney transplant program of its kind in the Southwest tailored for the Hispanic and Latino communities. The program involves education courses in Spanish by a bilingual transplant surgeon as well as bilingual group education sessions for family members. Dr. Richard Ruiz heads the program designed to increase the number of living kidney donors among the Hispanic population. "Hispanics comprise 40 percent of patients on the kidney transplant wait list, but the number of living donors is very low when you compare it to the white population," Diaz said.