Learning Center

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Hispanic Donor Insights (Individual)

Hispanic Americans have a substantial need for organ transplants and are underrepresented among organ and tissue donors. Understanding that organ and tissue donor programs wishes to increase donations from the Hispanic community, and particularly from first-generation individuals, insights, strategy, and tactics will be shared.

​Patricia Darrigan, CTBS

Patricia Darrigan is the Director of Public Relations and Communications at Legacy Donor Services Foundation. Her role with the Foundation is to develop and lead a communication and relationship-building plan that supports tissue donation activities in areas served by the organization. Some examples include donor memorials, bereavement/aftercare, donor awareness events, professional education for nursing and medical examiner staff, and public & media relations. 

 Ms. Darrigan has over 27-years of tissue donation experience. Prior to her career in tissue donation, she worked in the operating room for 13 years with a specialty in Neurosurgery, Orthopedics, and Open Heart, where human tissue grafts were often used to treat patients. Her love in caring for donor families has always been held in high regard, and she does what it takes to assure that the needs of donor families are met.

Martha Zarraga, CTBS

Martha Zarraga is the Donation Coordinator at BioTissue's birth tissue acquisition program, Sharing Miracles. She started her career in 2008 in the Call Center for the Life Alliance Organ Procurement Agency (LAORA). In 2010 the University of Miami Tissue Bank acquired the call center, and Martha was promoted multiple times within her 8 years of service for the tissue bank. As the Manager of Donor Services, she partnered with LAORA’s Hospital Development Team, representing the tissue bank. One of her greatest accomplishments in this role was to gain access for the Donation Coordinators to review hospital charts remotely by building partnerships and providing education to key stakeholders within different Hospital Systems . She presented at AATB’s 2015 Quality and Donor Services Workshop on how to gain access to Electronic Medical Records. 

She continued her career working as an Education Director for Medcure, Inc., a whole-body donation organization, as a Donation Services Specialist with Southwest Transplant Alliance, and most recently as a Senior Donation Coordinator for Live on Nebraska. 

A Miami, FL native, she is a mother of 3 children. She would have loved to donate her birth tissue but was unable to do so due to the lack of awareness of birth tissue donation and a recovery program in her community. This is what brought her to join the BioTissue Team. “Donation in all forms should be accessible to all. I am passionate about being an advocate in our community and bring awareness to the benefits of birth tissue donation.” 

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Hispanic Donor Insights
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