Md. Hospital Calls Attention To Organ Donations During Donate Life Month

BALTIMORE (WJZ)-- April is Donate Life Month and there's hardly a better place to call attention to the impact of organ donations than the University of Maryland Medical Center.

Attention turned to living donor transplants late last year when Maryland House Speaker Mike Busch received a partial liver from his sister and other lives that were saved.

RELATED: Maryland House Speaker Michael Busch Recovering After Liver Transplant

"I can't even tell you how grateful I am for Carrie coming into my life," said nurse practitioner Carole Brokos, who's a transplant recipient. "In 2001, little did I know, not only would we share birthdays together, but we would also share a liver."

When Brokos and EMS captain Carrie Naylor met on the job, they thought it was ironic that they shared the same birth date - and when an immune disorder meant Brokos needed a transplant, she posted her need on Facebook and Naylor responded.

"I started the process and it progressed very quickly which is probably part of the reason it happened," Naylor said. "It didn't give me a chance to stop and think about it, it was just the right thing to do."

"I said I'm going to be a transplant surgeon, which was a bold  thing to say for an 11-year-old girl in 1988, because that was not the norm," said Dr. Silke Niederhaud, who received a kidney at age 11 and told her surgeon she wanted to be a transplant surgeon also. "But I've accomplished that goal and I now do kidney transplants mostly, some pancreas transplants as well."

Donations are always welcomed at UMMC.

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