JOHNSON AMONG THOUSANDS AWAITING KIDNEY TRANSPLANT IN ILLINOIS

As of Jan. 1, more than 4,000 people awaited a kidney in Illinois, accounting for nearly 85 percent of all patients on organ waiting lists, according to the Gift of Hope Organ & Tissue Donor Network, a nonprofit organization in Illinois and Northwest Indiana which coordinates donations. Nationwide, 119,025 patients are awaiting a donation for various organs and tissues.

African- Americans— who experience kidney failure more often than any other race— make up 29 percent of the nearly 100,000 patients on the national organ waiting list and 35 percent of those awaiting kidney transplants, according to the Gift of Hope website.

Financial and social status don’t have an effect on decisions to place and transplant organs, according to Gift of Hope.

— Nader Issa