He didn’t need one organ; he needed two.
One fateful day in October, Julian Ramos got both, giving him a new lease on life and making him the first-ever dual organ transplant patient at Providence St. Joseph Hospital in Orange.
“They told me it was a disease that I was going to have to live with for the rest of my life,” said Ramos who just celebrated this 33rd birthday. Now, for the first time in nearly 20 years, Ramos can say he is diabetes and dialysis free.
“I feel like I won the lottery,” said Ramos. “This is as close as I could imagine that feeling is like.”
Ramos was diagnosed with diabetes when he was 14. He had a stroke when he was 29 and for three days a week for the past three years, Ramos has been on dialysis. After waiting a year for a kidney and pancreas donor, his doctors found a match.
“It’s just God’s timing was perfect,” said Ramos. “It’s definitely a game changer, it’s a different outlook on life.”
Ramos’ doctors said his dual organ transplant is one of about 800 per year across the country, and it’s a surgery that saved his young life.
“He had progressed to a point where his kidneys had also failed,” said Dr. Robert Naraghi, the medical director and transplant surgeon at Providence St. Joseph. “This was an opportunity for him to get both a kidney and pancreas, so it is a much more complicated procedure.”
Doctors said they knew Ramos’ transplant surgery was successful almost immediately.
“The benefit is when they wake up from surgery, they’re making urine so they’re no longer on dialysis, and then their sugars become normal immediately after surgery,” said Naraghi.
“It’s really heartwarming to see individuals out there that have left their organs for someone they’ll never meet but we get to see what it really means for individuals like Julian,” said Dr. Yasir Qazi, the kidney and pancreas transplant director at Providence St. Joseph.
Ramos shared his health journey because he said it changed his life. He also said he also wants to change the stigma and misconceptions around becoming an organ donor or recipient, especially in the Latino community.
“A lot of people are like, ‘Hey those are my organs. Bury me in the backyard, send me back to Mexico.’ They don’t event consider it,” said Ramos. “You could potential change someone’s life.”
Doctors said there is a critical shortage of organ donors right now, especially in the Latino community.
In 2023, approximately 36% of Latinos in the U.S. waiting for an organ transplant received one, compared to 58% of non-Hispanic White Americans, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health.