EMPLOYEE SPOTLIGHT - APRIL 2023

Did you know that April is Organ Donor Awareness Month? Let’s celebrate those who have saved lives by becoming organ, eye, and tissue donors, like our very own Angela Grohman! Her up close and personal experience with this topic inspired everyone on our team. She is a living donor.

Angela Grohman

My kidney recipient is my husband, Chris.

We met at an office building on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC., and started dating in 2010. He has two daughters who lived with us and played travel softball all over the East Coast. In 2012, we found out we were having a baby. Our daughter Cassidy was born in September shortly after my 40th birthday. 

After Cassidy's birth, Chris began experiencing flu-like symptoms that lasted almost a month and by April 2014 was losing weight, among a myriad of other concerning issues. He went to the doctor at my insistence and was sent for blood work. When the doctor herself called at 7:30 PM that Wednesday evening, I got that first pang of alarm. He repeated the tests and while away at a softball tournament he received the call that changed our lives – he had 5% kidney function left. He was in Stage 5 Renal Failure.

When they admitted him to the hospital, his blood pressure was 249/194. I don’t know how he had been functioning. We started at the small hospital in our community, but we soon realized this was more than they could handle and went to Washington Medstar Hospital.

Sitting at his bedside before his first surgery, I just looked at him and said, “If I’m a match, you can have one of my kidneys”.

People say they don’t know if they could donate an organ to someone. Others say you were so strong. I still get choked up sometimes thinking about it. I tell them honestly, if you really love someone and they need a kidney, they won’t have to ask. You won’t want to watch them suffer or think of life without them.

And as far as being strong – I wasn’t strong. It was the only choice I had. I’m not a hero – anyone would have done the same thing in my shoes.

Many people have misconceptions about living donation and think of it negatively. I’ve heard it all when people tried to dissuade me from donating.

Would I do it again? In a heartbeat. Seeing the difference in my husband since the transplant makes it all worthwhile. This whole experience has taught me that I didn’t know what giving was until I gave something to someone for which they can never repay me.

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