Patients Can Now Stay In El Paso For Kidney Transplants

By ABC-7 Reporter Daniel Marin

EL PASO, Texas – In this economy, we’re hearing a lot about outsourcing. In a way, El Paso has been ‘outsourcing’ a life-saving medical procedure to other parts of Texas and the Southwest.

But that’s not the case anymore.

We’re talking about kidney transplants. Before, patients had to leave the Sun City to have one.

Now, they can head to west El Paso to the brand new Transplant Services Center at Las Palmas Medical Center.

“It’s a wonderful, wonderful thing for us to have,” said Alicia Ward, a kidney transplant recipient herself.

“People in El Paso are so family-oriented,” Ward added, “We need our families around us.”

El Pasoans had been leaving a lot of their family behind to make to the haul to Dallas, San Antonio, Houston or Phoenix for kidney transplants.

“Things don’t always go the way we would like them to and now, {local patients} have some support,” said Dr. Fernando Raudales, a kidney specialist.

Raudales says now that El Paso has its kidney transplant center, officials can focus on getting organ donation numbers back to where they should be.