News & Events
Community & Patient Services News
Beyond Dialysis Events: A tremendous success
All three events were made possible by the gracious and generous sponsorship of The Charles T. Bauer Foundation, DaVita Inc., Fresenius Medical Care, University of Maryland Medical Center Division of Transplantation, Johns Hopkins Comprehensive Transplant Center and an educational grant from AMGEN.
Milford, DE
The Milford event was attended by 38 patients and their guests at the Milford Senior Center.
Judy Hedrick, a local dialysis patient; Michael Ferracci, a transplanted patient and senior social work student at Delaware State University; William Hudson, a transplanted patient and dialysis technician; and Cheryl McQueen-Milliner, a dialysis patient whose husband is also on dialysis, motivated the crowd by telling their inspirational stories.
Hagerstown, MD
Nearly 75 people attended the Hagerstown event including patients, guests and vendors. Dietician Kate Hoover of the DaVita Frederick Dialysis Center and Trish Clark of Fresenius, at The Meadows Dialysis Center, presented the program. The Jimi Cupino Project is a 3-piece acoustic music group featuring Jimi Cupino on acoustic guitar; Bryan Lyburn on harmonica and Paul Shultzaberger on percussion.
Baltimore, MD
The Baltimore Beyond Dialysis event at Martin's West hosted more than 675 people. More than half of those attendees were dialysis patients, who, with their guests, welcomed the opportunity to meet, mingle, learn and share.
The guest speaker, Mr. Derek Neal, case manager and intake specialist, for the Jericho Reentry Program of the Episcopal Community Services of Maryland, inspired the crowd. Read more about Mr. Neal's remarks here.
2010 KEY screenings: Beneficial for all
Of the 612 participants screened during this year's 13 KEY's (Kidneys: Evaluate Yours) community health screenings across the region, nearly 30% displayed "significant" results.
All participants were mailed complete results of their lab tests and those with results outside the normal range were urged to follow-up with their primary care physicians.
NKF-MD is most grateful to the many lay volunteers and nurses who assisted so generously through the year. Most certainly, the medical supervisors, including doctors and physician assistants, who provided onsite opportunities to discuss the preliminary results also made the events the best they could be.
The 2011 KEY screening schedule will be announced in the near future. Both the photo of Dr. Greer and the one above are credited to Mr. Calivn Reter, Vice President of the Senior Council at the Reisterstown Senior Center.
YOU could have kidney disease and be completely unaware! We urge you to GET CHECKED! There are approximately 12 free, public kidney screenings, called KEYs (Kidneys: Evaluate Yours), annually. KEY screenings take about 20 minutes. This screening may save your life or the life of someone dear to you! A simple blood test will let you know whether you're at risk for kidney disease or have early signs of it.
Diabetes and high blood pressure are the two major causes of kidney disease in the U.S. The KEY screening includes a very brief health history, weight, blood pressure check and blood draw. The NKF-MD urges everyone to GET CHECKED! One in nine Marylanders has kidney disease. If left untreated, the condition could lead to kidney failure, and the only way anyone survives kidney failure is kidney dialysis or a kidney transplant.
No pre-registration is necessary for the kidney screenings--walk-ins are always welcome. Please check back for a schedule of screenings in 2012. For more information, contact Brenda Falcone, Director of Community and Patient Services, at 443.322.0375, or email her at bfalcone@kidneymd.org.
