A story worth hearing
Utah’s first Spanish-speaking kidney transplant clinic
Intermountain Health opens a space where Hispanic patients receive all care in their language.
Watch on YouTube
What it’s about
Intermountain Health launched the first Spanish-speaking kidney transplant clinic in Utah. Now Hispanic patients can receive evaluation, education, and follow-up entirely in their language. It sounds like a small thing, but when you’re deciding whether to donate or receive an organ, understanding every word isn’t a luxury — it’s safety.
What you take with you
- Language isn’t a "nice to have." In medicine, one misunderstood word can change a lifelong decision.
- The Hispanic community is underrepresented on transplant waitlists, partly because of barriers that aren’t medical but about access and language.
- A clinic that speaks your language lowers fear and raises trust. And trust is what makes people take the next step.
Why I’m sharing this
Because we are Latinos and we know what it’s like to leave an appointment without understanding half of it. This clinic shows that when the language barrier comes down, more people feel ready to get evaluated, to donate, and to receive. The mission of humandonor.org was born from the same thing: clear information, in your language, without jargon that scares you off.
A personal note
What this video leaves me with
I’m Hispanic and I lived the transplant process up close. I know what it’s like to sign papers you don’t fully understand, or to nod along so you don’t bother anyone. During my dialysis there were moments when everything felt harder just because of the language. A clinic like this would have saved me a lot of fear. That’s why this site is in Spanish, English, and Portuguese: because your decision shouldn’t depend on whether you understood the fine print.