My Kidney Donation Story: Matt Harmody

My kidney donation story starts with my father. When he was 50 years old and I was a sophomore in college, I got a call from my mom telling me he was very ill and was going to the hospital. He ended up being diagnosed with acute kidney failure and put on emergent dialysis. He spent the next nine years struggling with kidney failure and dialysis. He had a transplant with a deceased donor kidney, but it only lasted a week or so. 

He had family members who would have been willing to donate a kidney to him, but he didn’t want to consider a living kidney donation. He said he had lived his life and didn’t want someone to risk their life on his behalf. Eventually, he succumbed to the disease. 

I had gone to school for engineering, but I eventually changed careers to pursue medicine. I became an emergency physician and had the privilege of taking care of dialysis patients, which reminded me of my father and everything he went through. I decided that if I couldn’t help my father with a living kidney donation, I could at least help a stranger. 

On September 26, 2017, I donated a kidney to a stranger. It was completely uneventful for me. I do a lot of endurance training and racing, and I was up and walking the hallways the day after the surgery. I did a 100K trail race within three months of my surgery. That was my personal mark that I was 100% recovered. 

I did not get to meet my recipient because she was not comfortable with that, but we did exchange notes. She sent me a nice note thanking me. 

I retired from emergency medicine primarily to do advocacy work for living donation. I am a mentor for the National Kidney Donation Organization, and I speak to a lot of groups about living donation. I am also part of the Coalition to Modify NOTA (the National Organ Transplant Act, which banned payment for living donor organs), which has introduced legislation to incentivize living donors by offering nonrefundable tax credits. 

Living kidney donation is probably one of the single greatest gifts you can give someone who has essentially been given a death sentence. It’s a very low-risk surgery and complications are rare. For almost everyone, there is almost no change in your life no matter how active you care to be.

About the Author

Matt Harmody is a retired emergency physician with a lifelong dedication to endurance training and competitions. He has competed in triathlons, marathons, ultramarathon trail races, and adventure races, including the three-day Sea-to-Sea adventure race across the State of Florida, summiting Mount Kilimanjaro, and acting as support crew for a Guinness World record-breaking speed summit of the highest point in every U.S. state. He has two adult sons and lives with his wife in Southern Pines, North Carolina.