Kidney Donor, Recipient Friends, Co-workers

By Sondra Murphy
The staff at Ojai Community Bank was all smiles on Friday in anticipation of Wendy Giroux, at left in the photo, receiving a healthy new kidney. The most amazing part of the transplant is that the kidney is being donated Thursday by friend and coworker, Jodi Woolwine. “The bank has been incredibly supportive,” said Giroux. “This is all very exciting to us.”
Giroux and Woolwine have known each other for about 25 years. They have children the same age and have worked together at two different banks. “Jodi kept saying it was going to be her, and it was,” said Giroux.
Giroux was told four years ago that her kidneys were functioning 50 percent below normal. Two years ago she began the testing process at UCLA Medical Center that would allow her to be placed on the transplant list.
Extensive medical tests are performed to measure the health of other organs in analyzing if the patient would be a good transplant candidate. After tests came back strong, Giroux was placed on the recipient list. Today, at 53, she has about 10 percent kidney function.
“The same thing happened to my mother, so I knew what to expect,” said Giroux.
Last year, Woolwine again became a coworker of Giroux’s at Ojai Community Bank. Near the same time, Giroux began dialysis treatments. She goes to Ventura three times a week for the three-hour treatments.Giroux said she has lost a lot of weight in the process, “but that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.”
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