By admin 
PINEHURST, N.C. (WNCN) — Dr. Matt Harmody has spent his life going to the extremes — running ultramarathons and working marathon shifts in the emergency department — but it’s what he could not do that led to one of the most important decisions of his life.
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Harmody did his residency in the emergency department at UNC Hospital in Chapel Hill before spending two decades as an emergency physician in the Sandhills. His son is following in his footsteps, doing his residency in emergency medicine at UNC Health.
But Harmody’s father was not a doctor.
“He was not a big fan of doctors,” Harmody recalled.
Still, it was Harmody’s father who led him to UNC Hospitals in more ways than one.
“My father was such a mentor and an important person in my life,” he said.
When Harmody was in college, he learned his father’s kidneys were failing. Harmody will never forget the call from his mother.
(Matt Harmody) 
(Matt Harmody) 
(Matt Harmody)
“He was deathly ill,” Harmody said. “That’s what it would take to get my dad to go to the hospital. He was in complete kidney failure.”
Harmody, who was studying engineering at the time, didn’t know a lot about kidney donation, but he knew a transplant from a living donor could help his father get well if his father would agree.
“He did not want to consider a living kidney donation,” Harmody said. “He felt he’d lived a full life at age 50, didn’t want to risk someone else’s life.”
Harmody would’ve given a kidney to his father if his father would have accepted.
“I always just saw that as a missed opportunity to really help my father, really save his life,” he added.
While Harmody couldn’t save his father, watching his him battle kidney disease led him to save lives in a different way.
“My experience with my father and the medical team that took care of him completely changed what I thought I should be doing,” he said. “It drove me to pursue going back to school and specifically medical school.”
Harmody’s father passed away before he started working in the emergency department, but he was never far from his mind.
“Every day, I saw a dialysis patient, at least one,” Harmody said. “Each reminded me of my father and what he went through.”
Harmody knew his lifesaving efforts could go even further.
“I finally reached a point in time where, though I couldn’t make a difference in my father’s life, I knew I could make a difference in someone else’s,” he said.
Nearly 20 years after his residency, Harmody found himself back at UNC Hospital, not to learn or to work, but to donate a kidney. He had no idea who would receive it.
“Some other people did question why would I do something like that for someone I don’t even know,” he said.
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Dr. Alex Toledo, the surgical director for kidney transplants at UNC Hospital said, “He didn’t know where that kidney was going, but was still willing to do it and very committed to doing that.”
Toledo and transplant nephrologist Dr. Eddie Fuller explained living donors offer a lot of advantages to transplant patients.
“Living kidneys work better and last longer than kidneys do from a deceased donor,” Fuller said. “Most importantly, you can get them sooner.”
Before surgery, a potential donor must go through extensive testing to make sure they’re healthy and mentally prepared to donate. While recovery takes time, most donors are back to their normal lives within weeks.
“As long as they’re staying hydrated and going to their checkups, there really are very few limitations,” Toledo said. “Matt’s been proof of that.”
Harmody, an endurance athlete, didn’t slow down for long. In fact, he’s climbed mountains, along with other living donors.
“The most significant was Mount Kilimanjaro,” he said. “We summited on World Kidney Day.”
Not stopping there, Harmody joined several other living kidney donors in setting a Guinness World Record for summitting the highest point in all 50 states in the shortest amount of time.
Harmody wrote a book about the adventure called “Ascending America”. It isn’t his accomplishments he hopes to highlight, but rather the opportunity to help someone else.
“You don’t have to be a physician, you don’t have to be an endurance athlete,” he said. “You can be an ordinary person, do something extraordinary, and save someone’s life by being a living kidney donor.”
Although Harmody hasn’t met the person who received his kidney, he cherishes a note she wrote to him and took it with him to Mount Kilimanjaro.
Harmody’s lifesaving work continues, even after retiring from emergency medicine. He’s the board chair for the National Kidney Donation Organization, where mentors potential donors and shares his experience every chance he gets. He always talks about his dad.
While Harmody’s father was never a big fan of hospitals, he led his son to become a doctor, to save a stranger, and to encourage others considering donation.
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“I think he would be very happy and proud,” Harmody said.
According to the National Kidney Donation Organization, more than 90,000 people across the country are on the waiting list for a kidney. Every day 13 people on the list die waiting.
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To find out more about how to become a living donor, visit this link.