Ofrendas honor organ donors in South Bay amid effort to encourage more Latinos to register
Families honored Dia de los Muertos this week. While some families are coping with loss, they're also celebrating new life.
SANTA CLARA COUNTY, Calif. (KGO) -- Families around the world are honoring Dia de los Muertos this week.
While some families in the South Bay are coping with loss, they're also celebrating new life.
Jess Chairez is the father of Joseph Chairez, known as Joe. In addition to being a beloved son, Joe was a Sacramento police officer.
"He died of a brain aneurysm on the job while making an arrest," Jess Chairez said.
Jess Chairez said that before Joe graduated from the academy, he told him that he wanted to be an organ donor, a decision Jess initially disagreed with.
But when Joe passed and doctors asked Jess if his organs could be donated, he knew he had to think that over.
"God gave me an answer right then and there and the answer was, 'If I honored my son, I'll be honoring him,'" Jess Chairez said.
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Joe Chairez saved four lives that day.
"Five years later, I got to meet the person that has my son's heart and I got to put my head against his chest."
Joe was one of many organ donors being honored on Ofrendas at all three Santa Clara County-run hospitals.
The goal is to honor the past donors and raise awareness for organ donations, especially in the Latino Community.
"In California alone, there's over 20,000 individuals waiting for an organ. Latinos make half of that on the California wait list," said Eileen Delgado Spallino with Donor Network West. She says many in the Latino community are hesitant to register as Donors because of common myths.
"They feel that if you put donation on your driver's license or whatever, when the medics come to take care of you, they're not gonna take care of you because you're a donor and why waste resources taking care of you?" she said saying that that is far from the truth.
"We need the organs to be in really good shape. So, they're going to take care of you anyway, because that's what they have to do and paramedics are not looking at the driver's license for that donation dot. They're looking at it to identify who you are and get you to a hospital and call your next of kin."
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She said some hesitancy can also be traced to religious beliefs.
"I encourage for individuals that if they believe that their religion does not support (organ donation), to speak to the elders because every religion right now supports donation because it is giving life," Spallino said.
Pankaj Sawant has a beating heart today because of someone like Joe Chairez, who registered to be an organ donor.
"The year before, I was literally praying to God to at least give me a couple of years, so that I can see my son go to college, and yesterday we applied for his admission," Sawant said.
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His request now is for more people to consider registering as organ donors.
"I think that's the ultimate thing you can do," he said.
For more on registering, click here.
