- August 13, 2025
- By Annie Krakower
Early one morning in 1996, just days after 4-year-old Kai Dambach had received his second kidney transplant, he dragged his mom and donor, his IV pole trailing behind them, to the hospital playroom. It hadn't even opened for the day, but he was determined to be first in line to fire up the Super Nintendo.
Now, the University of Maryland alum is applying that same drive on a much bigger stage, along with thousands of others who share a special bond.
Starting Sunday, athletes from 60 nations will take the field and court for the 25th World Transplant Games, a weeklong event featuring 2,500 organ transplant recipients and donors competing in 17 sports. With the ultimate goal of raising awareness of lifesaving transplantation, this year’s Games in Dresden, Germany, will be the fourth for Dambach ’13. He’ll be competing in basketball, squash, shot put, discus, ball throw and pétanque, a bocce-like game.
“Every single one of those people who’s competing out there, they’re not supposed to be alive today,” he said. “The miracles of modern medicine are just profound, and we’re living proof of that. It’s a beautiful thing that we all come together, and we can share in the gift of life.”
Diagnosed as a baby with posterior urethral valves and end-stage renal disease, he had his right kidney removed as a 1-year-old, then received the organ from his dad when he was 2.
“Almost everything that could go wrong did go wrong,” Dambach’s mom, Kay Dambach, said. His lungs flooded with fluid, and the kidney stopped working. “He almost died a couple times.”
So two years later, she gave him one of hers. This time, everything went right, and both Dambachs were out of the hospital near their Annapolis home in less than a week (after enjoying some early-morning video games there).
With the help of a cocktail of antirejection drugs and other medication taken at least twice daily, the new kidney kept going strong into Kai’s college years at UMD, where he studied broadcast journalism and Germanic studies and spent countless hours covering Terp sports for the student-run radio station WMUC.
But kidney transplants from living donors last only an average of 15-20 years, so as he was closing in on commencement, his doctor called to tell him they’d have to start looking for his third transplant.
With both parents down to a single kidney, Kai’s older brother, Grant ’11, was willing to give one of his. But before he could, his mom was at the gym chatting with a friend, a former long-term substitute teacher who had Kai in class and asked about him. When Kay said he needed a new kidney, she immediately offered to donate. She got tested the next day to find out she was a near-perfect match, and during the 2014 surgery, her kidney was already working in Kai before he was stitched back up and ready to seize the opportunity he’d been given.
“I vowed to myself while I was getting wheeled back,” Kai said, “‘If I make it out of here, I’m gonna go crazy—in all the right ways.’”
He followed his love of the German soccer league Bundesliga and moved to the country, and through his work covering sports as a commentator and journalist, he became more familiar with the World Transplant Games. He had participated in the similar U.S. Transplant Games in Columbus, Ohio, as a 6-year-old, and was eager to step up to the international level. He and his mom signed up for the 2017 Games in Malaga, Spain.
The summer Games—held every two years, alternating with winter events—invite anyone ages 4-80 who has received a transplant or is a donor to participate. The sports are similar to Olympic offerings, including swimming, track and field, volleyball and archery, though some have shorter play clocks or unlimited substitutions to accommodate transplant athletes who may have lower stamina.
In Spain, Kai earned bronze in paddle tennis—a local sport combining elements of tennis, squash and badminton—and pétanque. Though he wasn’t as successful in following years in the United Kingdom and Australia, the events are more about camaraderie than fierce competition, he said.
“I don’t get many opportunities to really sit down and talk with people about transplantation. It’s usually with doctors,” he said. “This way I can casually talk about it with other people, and I can hear what they went through and how it compares to what I went through. And I always learn something.”
While his mom can’t attend with him this year, they plan to run the 5K together in the 2027 Games in Belgium as they continue to promote the benefits of organ donation and transplants.
“Most of these guys have been through so much pain,” Kay said. “To see those smiles and them having fun, that’s the kind of thing that me as a mom would do anything to see.”
Kai Dambach ’13 hugs his mom, Kay Dambach, a few days after she donated her kidney to him in 1996. (Photo courtesy of Kai Dambach)
Topics
People