Mayo Clinic Navajo health care worker helping Native Americans with organ transplants

PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) -- There is a significant need for organ transplants on Arizona’s reservations, where Native Americans struggle with basic necessities and medical assistance. Mayo Clinic’s new program extends outreach to those areas with their first Navajo Patient Navigator for Transplant Services. Robert Monroe and Jackie Johnson have lived on Navajo land all of their lives outside of Winslow, Arizona. “We can see the stars,” said Johnson.

Being far from the city lights has its setbacks, especially for Monroe, who had dialysis for his failing kidney. Getting to his appointments was costly, and Johnson sometimes made and sold candy for gas money to get there. Monroe said while the treatments kept him alive, they wasted his days away and he often did not get work done around his property. “I would get home and go to sleep,” he said.

Everything changed when they met Silena Thomas, Mayo Clinic’s first-ever Navajo Patient Navigator for Transplant Services. Thomas grew up on the reservation and faced the same challenges Johnson and Monroe face today, including the translation and trust barriers those on Indian land may feel for medical providers in the city.

It’s an issue close to her heart, and Thomas remembers helping her family like she helps patients today. “It’s very rewarding. I feel that when I’m helping those patients, I’m carrying on her legacy. I feel that’s something she would have wanted because that’s something I did for her and my grandma,” she said.

Now, Thomas finds herself at homes like Monroes and Johnsons. She is speaking to not only Navajos but members of all 22 tribes in Arizona. In Roberts’s case, she’s guiding him before and after his kidney transplant. He said he can get all the chores done around his house. “I am busy,” said Monroe.

It’s a life-changing experience that’s hard to put into words for Johnson, no matter the language. “It still makes me tear up,” she said.

If you know someone who needs a transplant, click here.

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