By Ashley Sharp
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SACRAMENTO, California (KMAX, KOVR) — This Hispanic Hispanic Heritage Month serves as a call to action from organ donation activists.
Hispanics make up nearly half of the organ transplant wait list, but are among the fewest to sign up to become organ donors.
The family of fallen Sacramento Police officer Joseph “Joe” Chairez is working to change that, because 25 years after his death, his gift of life just keeps on giving.
“He wanted to help everybody and growing up as a child, he always talked about becoming a police officer,” said Joe’s father, Jess Chairez.
In his most formative years, Joe heard his calling loud and clear. He would dedicate his life to making a difference in his community.
“In our home, we never spoke Spanish. Back in the 50’s when we grew up, we weren’t allowed to speak Spanish in school, and our parents spoke to us in English, so we didn’t know how to speak Spanish. But Joe knew that he wanted to help the Hispanic community, so all through junior high and high school, he learned Spanish,” said Jess.
Joe’s parents call him their hero. He was their youngest of three sons.
“He just knew how to talk to people and that’s what I that’s what I loved about him,” said Jess.
“Oh, he was very giving. He always helping others. He was well-liked. He had a lot of friends,” said Joe’s mother, Theresa Chairez. Joe was still in training after being hired as an officer at Sacramento Police Department, just shy of his six-month mark, when the unthinkable happened.
While making an arrest with his partner, Joe collapsed from a brain aneurysm in November 2000.
Joe’s family was gathered that night to celebrate Thanksgiving and was waiting for him to get home to start the feast.
Instead, they got a call from the Chief of Police with the devastating news.
“He says, ‘I just want to let you know that your son went down,'” said Jess. “And all I had in my mind is I wanted to see my son, Joe.”
Jess and Theresa raced to the emergency room at UC Davis Medical Center, where dozens of officers were lining the hallways.
“I knew that was a bad sign,” said Theresa.
With their son on life support, Jess replayed a recent conversation he had with Joe in his head.
“Six months prior, when Joe was in the academy, he came to me. He says, ‘Hey, Dad, if anything ever happened to me on the street when I’m a police officer,’ he goes, ‘I would like to donate my organs.’ And I told him, ‘Nope, it’s not going to happen.’ I wouldn’t give him my blessing,” said Jess.
Jess said his reasoning was that he simply could not comprehend his youngest son dying, so, he shut it down.
Fast-forward to the desperate prayer he lifted from the halls of the hospital.
“I said, ‘God, what do I do?’ No sooner than I said those words, God gave me an answer right then and there. And he told me, if I honored my son, I’d be honoring him. So I knew I had to change my mind,” said Jess.
When the time came, the doctor asked Jess and Theresa if they would allow Joe to donate his organs.
“I looked at the doctor eye to eye, and I said, ‘Yes,’ ” said Jess. “And I put my head on his chest. That was last thing I got to do, is hear my son’s heartbeat.”
Jess recalls his wife mouthed ‘thank you’ at the decision to honor their son’s wish of becoming an organ donor.
The two would hear that beautiful heartbeat again, five years later.
They got to reunite with the man who was the recipient of Joe’s heart. They placed their ears to his chest and heard Joe’s heart beating alive and well once more.
“There are no words that can describe that,” said Jess. “It’s something that my wife and I needed at the time to hear his heart again.”
Joe’s selfless last act saved four lives total.
But among the Hispanic community, organ donation is more rare.
“It’s discouraging,” said Cristian Morales of Sierra Donor Services, a non-profit organ procurement organization located in West Sacramento.
“There’s a lot of mistrust in our system, specifically medical, and if you can talk to someone in the language that they speak, or if you even look like them, you know, it builds that trust. That’s essentially what we integrate when we talk about organ donation,” said Morales.
The statistics for Hispanics are grim.
It is why part of Morales’ job at Sierra Donor Services is to reach his fellow Hispanic community and encourage them to become organ donors.
“In California, there are over 19,000 people actively waiting for a life-saving transplant. And the Latino community encompasses 48% of that. So we’re talking nearly half of the wait list,” said Morales.
He says the Latino community, statistically, is among the least likely to donate an organ.
“A lot of our people are on dialysis. And because not enough Latinos, not enough of our people are saying yes to donation, people are waiting five years, ten years, or sometimes they get too sick and they’re not able to receive that gift of life,” said Morales.
Data shows transplants are more successful when the recipient and donor are of the same ethnicity.
Morales works to break through language barriers, cultural misconceptions and mistrust of healthcare within the Latino community.
His own grandmother died waiting for a kidney.
“And that’s what that that gave me the the impetus to really talk to my community and to show that this is important. You know, it could be your neighbor, your family member, anyone you know,” said Morales. “It’s something that’s not talked about, unfortunately, as much in the Hispanic community. I could be that voice and make that change.”
He says common misconceptions he works to debunk are that organ donation is not supported by religion, that doctors won’t work as hard to save your life if you’re an organ donor, and that you cannot have an open casket funeral — all of which he says are untrue.
An organ donor can save up to eight lives and better the lives of 75 people through tissue donation.
The Chairez family now spends their days advocating for more organ donors within the Hispanic community and all communities.
“I want everybody to be like Joe and hopefully sign up become an organ donor,” said Jess.
They travel the region and the country sharing Joe’s story, hoping to water the seed they say Joe first planted and help grow the gift of life.
“I’m here to honor God, honor my son, and honor all mankind,” said Jess. “And it just makes me feel good in my heart knowing that Joe had something to do with that.”
It’s easy to become an organ donor and costs you and your family nothing.
Visit Donate Life California’s website to register.
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