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Ramon Martin del Campo, a Henderson patrol officer and former captain of the Las Vegas Lights, poses with his mother, Susy, shortly after donating his kidney. Because of her son’s organ donation, Susy Martin del Campo was moved up on a waiting list and received a new kidney in January.
Friday, Aug. 25, 2023 | 2 a.m.
Henderson Police Officer Ramon Martin del Campo was living and playing professional soccer in Canada in 2017 when his family came to visit with heartbreaking news.
His mother, Susy, who he said “was always that athletic mom,” was suffering from kidney failure after years battling kidney disease.
“From the get-go I was like, ‘Mom, take mine,’ ” Martin del Campo, 30, said. “You brought me into this, like, you gave me life. What a blessing, what a miracle, what an honor to be able to return the favor and bless you with life.”
Six years later, Martin del Campo’s mother was able to get a new kidney after her son donated his kidney to someone in Minnesota. Mother and son weren’t a match, but by Martin del Campo giving his kidney to someone in need, his mother received priority status on the Nevada waiting list.
On Saturday, Martin del Campo — former captain and center back for the Las Vegas Lights — will be honored by the team and the Nevada Donor Network as part of their “Donate Life Night,” an event used to raise awareness of the need for organ donors.
Martin del Campo said he’d never really thought much about becoming an organ donor, but wasted no time in offering up his own after receiving word of his mother’s decline in health.
In Nevada, around 650 people are in need of organ transplants, said Steven Peralta, president of the Nevada Donor Network Foundation.
And those are just the people who have been identified. The true number should be between three to four times more based on the state’s population, Peralta believes.
About 104,234 Americans are in need of an organ transplant, and that number continues to grow with another person expected to be added to the national transplant waiting list every 10 minutes, according to the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration.
Kidneys are the most sought-after transplant organ. More than 80,000 people were on the list for one as of January, according to the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration. In 2022, 25,499 kidney transplants were performed – the highest number of transplants done in 2022.
Susy Martin del Campo was placed on that long list and began receiving dialysis shortly after revealing her condition to her family.
Ramon Martin del Campo tried to donate his kidney to her early on, and he passed all of the necessary health tests he took while still playing soccer professionally.
Despite that, doctors told Ramon Martin del Campo that his cells were too similar to his mother’s and might cause the organ to be attacked by her white blood cells, he said.
After a few years on dialysis, Susy Martin del Campo was finally able to get that kidney, but not in the way that she or her son expected.
With the help of Nevada Donor Network, a nonprofit organization that coordinates, recovers and allocates organs or healing tissue for transplantation, Ramon Martin del Campo became a live donor and gave his kidney to a man in Minnesota, he said.
“I don’t know his name, but I hope he’s living it up and has killed it with my kidney,” Ramon Martin del Campo said of the man. “I hope he’s playing soccer now because his kidneys — my kidney — are telling him to kick a ball. And with that, my mom was able to be put on top of the list.”
By donating his kidney to the Minnesota man, Ramon Martin del Campo said the Nevada Donor Network was able to help move his mother to the top of its list and soon found a kidney for her.
Susy Martin del Campo received her new kidney in January, less than half a year after Martin del Campo donated his in September 2022.
Although his mother still needs to take antirejection pills and get the occasional laboratory work done, Ramon Martin del Campo said she was now able to do many activities she hadn’t been able to do, like traveling without dragging around a huge dialysis machine and playing in the pool with her grandchildren, since her kidney failed in 2017.
“It’s just like life all over again (for her), like those little things where you don’t have a tube sticking out in your stomach,” Ramon Martin del Campo said. “It was a lot of ups and downs, like a lot of crying … (but) it was a blessing.”
Now, he spends his days taking care of his two young daughters, working as a patrol officer in Henderson and trying to educate people about the benefits of organ donation.
The past few years with his mother and his journey as a live donor were eye-opening and have completely changed Ramon Martin del Campo’s perspective on kidney donations, he said.
“We are so grateful for Ramon’s support in sharing the message of life and hope that organ, eye and tissue donation can be given to those waiting,” Nevada Donor Network said in a statement. “Heroic decisions like Ramon’s bring hope to those waiting for a second chance at life and inspire others to support donation.”
The Nevada Donor Network said there was “a dire need for more registered donors, particularly those from multicultural backgrounds.”
About 60% of Americans waiting for an organ transplant come from multicultural communities, and one organ donor has the ability to save eight lives, they added. Tissue donors can save around 75.
August is Minority Donor Awareness Month, which was created to “raise awareness for the increased need for organ, eye and tissue donors,” according to the Nevada Donor Network.
It’s part of the reason why the Nevada Donor Network and Las Vegas Lights wanted to schedule Donate Life Night at their 7 p.m. game Saturday against Phoenix Rising FC.
The Lights are giving away 1,000 free tickets to local health care workers and wearing commemorative jerseys with neon organs throughout the month.
While he will be honored at the game, Ramon Martin del Campo wants more spotlight to be put on the Nevada Donor Network and use that opportunity to inspire others to consider becoming organ or tissue donors.
“It’s nice to go back home, go back to the field I used to play on and be honored by the former owner and the team there,” he said. “(But) I’m just a living example of what the network can do, and if there’s one person sitting in the stands that’s going through the same thing or has the same mentality of ‘I want to make a difference,’ well at least they get to see an option — a door open.”
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