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Take action with UMMC: Donate to fight kidney disease

Posted at 9:39 PM, Jul 15, 2014
and last updated 2016-09-15 10:35:45-04

A kidney transplant is the most effective long-term treatment for renal failure.  Transplant recipients experience an almost immediate improvement in quality of life, and they go onto live normal lives with few restrictions.  The key to increasing the quality of life for more people with end stage renal disease is reliant upon donors.  There is an ongoing shortage of donor organs in the U.S.  An increase in organ donation, whether from living or deceased donors, would greatly reduce the number of people on the wait list and the time spent waiting for kidneys. 

Finding a match for a kidney transplant can take years if you don’t have a willing donor who is a match.  These options could possibly shorten someone’s time on the waiting list: 

Multiple listing:  Registering on the wait list at more than one transplant center increases your chances of being transplanted faster. Wait times at the University of Maryland Medical Center are shorter than the national average.

Transferring wait time:  Those who feel like they’ve been waiting too long can transfer their “primary waiting time” – the longest time they’ve waited at any center – to another transplant center.

Paired Kidney Exchange Program:  If an intended donor is not a match, this program allows the living donor to give his or her kidney to a best-matched recipient, while the originally intended recipient would receive a kidney from a best-matched donor, perhaps from outside his or her region’s transplant pool. 

Any day, any month, any time is the right time to consider organ donation and saving a life. 

To find out how you can become a living donor or for more information about the University of Maryland Kidney Transplant Program, go to umm.edu/transplant.  Or call 410-328-5408.

We invite to learn more about organ donations and transplants and the impact they can have on every person involved. Visit http://abc2news.com/tradinglife