UMMC and NKF Team for Living Kidney Donation Workshop, Sept. 16

LUTHERVILLE, Md. –The University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) and the National Kidney Foundation Serving Maryland & Delaware (NKF-MDDE) will partner to educate and raise awareness about living kidney donation and transplantation.

The two organizations will co-host The Big Ask: The Big Give on Sunday, Sept. 16, from noon to 5 p.m., at the University of Maryland Southern Management Campus Center (621 West Lombard St., Baltimore, MD 21201).

This free 4-hour workshop is designed to help waitlisted kidney patients find a living donor. Specifically, it will teach kidney patients, families and friends how to:

• Find a living kidney donor
• Educate family and friends about living donor kidney transplant
• Tell your story through social media outlets and other channels

“Due to the worldwide shortage of organs for kidney transplant
recipients, the option of living donation is a solution for a large
number of patients,” said Dr. Rolf Barth, head of the
Division of Transplantation at the University of Maryland Medical
Center, which has been a leader in the development of living donor
transplantation for over 20 years.

"At this workshop we will discuss the living donor transplant process and debunk some common myths about organ donation," Dr. Barth added.

Overall, the list of people awaiting kidney transplants is growing.
In 1989 there were 19,095 Americans on the kidney transplant waiting
list; today there are 120,000. Currently, there are 2,712 Marylanders
waiting for a life-saving kidney transplant and 9,300 who are on dialysis.

“For people with kidney disease, asking someone to consider donating
akidney can seem impossible. Many won’t get a transplant because they
don’t know how to ask or are uncomfortable with asking,” said Pattie Dash,executive
director of the National Kidney Foundation office Serving Maryland and
Delaware. “We are giving the tools to start a life-saving conversation.”

Admission to The Big Ask: The Big Give is free with complimentary parking and lunch starting at 11:30 a.m. Registration is required by visiting www.kidney.org/ummcbigaskbiggive.For more information, contact call 410.494.8545 or email Jessica.quinitilian@kidney.org.

About the University of Maryland Medical Center

The University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) comprises two
hospitals in Baltimore: an 800-bed teaching hospital — the flagship
institution of the 12-hospital University of Maryland Medical System
(UMMS) — and a 200-bed community teaching hospital, UMMC Midtown Campus.
UMMC is a national and regional referral center for trauma, cancer
care, Eurocard, cardiac care, diabetes and endocrinology, women's and
children's health, and has one of the largest solid organ transplant programs in the country. For more information, visit www.umm.edu.

About NKF

The National Kidney Foundation (NKF) is the largest, most
comprehensive and longstanding organization dedicated to the awareness, prevention and treatment of kidney disease. For more information, visit www.kidney.org.