More than 14,000 kidney transplant candidates were moved up the waitlist.ABC7 Bay Area 24/7 live streamJazmin Evans is one of more than 14,000 Black kidney transplant candidates who found out that an outdated medical test may have inappropriately calculated their need for a transplant.
In many cases, the use of a race-based score may have contributed to Black patients being placed lower on the waitlist. "My original wait time started April of 2019," she says in the TikTok video. "With the new calculation for Black Americans, my 'start date' would have started 2015.""At this point, I am eight years on the transplant list," she continues. "For my blood type, the average waiting time is about four to five years. I could've a kidney already."
Michelle Josephson, former president at American Society of Nephrology, called the inclusion of race factors in the previous kidney transplant waitlist evaluations inappropriate. Carole Johnson, administrator at the Health Resources and Services Administration, said the agency had long heard from families and people in the transplant field that there was room for improvement in the evaluating systems.