Black Transplant Surgeons Seek to Increase Support for Donation

Seventeen of the country's 18 African-American transplant surgeons have held an unprecedented meeting in Newark, NJ, to deliver a message of encouragement to black medical students and seek to raise awareness of the need for organ donation in the black community.

"I think this is a terribly critically important day in the history of transplantation and the history of Black America," said Dorian Wilson, a liver transplant surgeon at Newark's University Hospital.

While a disproportionately high percentage of the more than 80,000 people on transplant waitings lists around the United States are African American, organ donation rates in the black community have historically been lower than the national average.

The program, held in honor of Black History Month, was sponsored by The Sharing Network and University Hospital.

"You hear about all-star teams in sports. This is a true, all-star team here," observed Dr. David Kountz, an internist and son of the late Dr. Samuel L. Kountz., who is recognized as the first African-American transplant surgeon.

One of the first black graduates of the University of Arkansas Medical School in Little Rock, Kountz, a kidney transplant specialist, died in 1981 at the age of 51.

Other Sources: Newsark Star Ledger