A local man and his family are eagerly awaiting his chance at an organ transplant to provide a steadier future as they continue to grapple with major health complications that began for him earlier this year.

Victoria Karban and Tim Grant currently make their home in Lenzburg.

While Grant bounced around a bit being in a military family – stopping by Scott Air Force Base and Granite City – Karban has been more comfortable in the rural areas of St. Clair County, growing up between Smithton and Hecker.

The couple share a history as community servants, each of them long giving of their time in some capacity for emergency response departments.

Karban has worked as a dispatcher for 19 years, having grown up in a family of volunteer firefighters. She currently works as a Monroe County Sheriff’s Department dispatcher, though she has previously served in Washington and Clinton counties.

Having spent some years with the Missouri Department of Transportation’s roadside assistance, the bulk of Grant’s career has been spent in EMS, chiefly for MedStar.

As he described, working as a first responder proved to be a major positive life change for Grant when he was younger.

“I was starting to hang out with the wrong type of crowd, going down a wrong path, so I tried this thing called the Fire Explorers, which is fireman training basically, and I just fell in love with it in 1993,” Grant said.

Along with a shared familiarity, the couple actually has a direct connection within emergency response as they previously worked within the same organization many years ago – though this wasn’t the start of their current relationship.

“We both worked for the same agency 19 years ago and knew each other,” Karban said. “We were both in different relationships, but somebody neglected to tell me that he liked me back then, so about four years ago, I randomly sent him a Snapchat because I was going to a work conference, and we talked every day since then, and then he finally told me ‘Hey, I’ve liked you since this time,’ and we’ve been together ever since.”

Having reconnected years ago, the two got married on Oct. 4 and currently enjoy the St. Louis Blues and spending time as a family with their young daughter and teenage son, cooking, hunting or simply laying out with their dogs.

While this year featured such a tremendous milestone and celebration for their relationship, the family has also had to contend with terrible health issues for Grant for several months now.

As the couple explained, Grant was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. While otherwise perfectly healthy for most of his life, things took a turn back in June.

“Right around Father’s Day this past year, we had a pretty bad scare,” Karban said. “He was having some major issues with some swelling… Went to the hospital, and they found out he was in kidney failure.”

His kidney function dropped precipitously, falling below the typical threshold at which folks start on dialysis.

With a hospital stay, Grant’s body recovered as much as possible, at which point he returned home and started dialysis, which he has been continuing the past few months.

He has been through surgery several times since the first trip to the hospital, the most recent one taking place Monday. Grant has also dealt with pneumonia.

Recent visits to the hospital have focused on testing to determine whether or not he is eligible for a kidney and pancreas transplant.

Karban spoke about some of what Grant has been facing alongside her and his family.

“We started that journey back then. He does dialysis nine hours a night at home, but we’ve been doing all the testing, trying to see if he qualifies for kidney/pancreas transplants,” Karban said. “We’ve been doing all the testing, which is insane. Cardiac cath, they drew 32 vials of blood one day… They test everything because they want to make sure that your body is healthy enough that after you get the transplant, you don’t have a risk of infection or other issues causing those new organs to fail.”

Grant also spoke about his experience, focusing mainly on the nightly dialysis which this week is being swapped for hemodialysis, the type of dialysis which takes place in a hospital or dialysis center and cleans blood directly.

“Being tied down at night for nine hours, you’re basically on a leash,” Grant said. “You can only go so far with the tubing. That’s been rough, but now switching… it’ll be going every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for three to four hours.”

He also stressed the degree of fatigue he’s felt these past few months, with both he and Karban emphasizing how different his energy is compared to before his current health issues.

Grant has also been unable to work since he’s been sick.

“Going from one thing to another, just kind of totally run down all the time,” he continued. “I feel tired, basically. Tired and winded compared to what I was used to.”

With these lifelong helpers now in need of help themselves, Karban’s brother Michael – a Hecker firefighter – recently started a GoFundMe for the family which has, as of publication, raised $2,800 of its $30,000 goal.

The couple are, naturally, more than thankful for the support they’ve been shown, both from those who have contributed to the fundraiser and the loved ones who have been there for some time now.

“Our friends and family have always been so amazingly supportive,” Karban said. “This is something that we have really struggled with since they set it up. We are the type that we try to do something at least once a year for somebody. We’ve always been the type that we pay it forward, we do for others, and knowing that we’re in this situation now, it’s hard.”

As Grant is switched onto hemodialysis, the family is further hoping for positive news concerning his transplant prospects.

With that goal to work and hope for, they remarked that they’re working through the struggle the only way they can.

“Knowing that we have this journey for a couple years yet, all we try to do is we take it a day at a time because that’s all we can do, just working through the highs and lows that are the emotions that are big time right now,” Karban said.

While folks are welcome to contribute to Grant’s GoFundMe, Karban also pointed out that individuals could look to help people in a similar situation somewhere down the line.

“Organ donations are huge,” Karban said. “I know I’m an organ donor. If something were to happen to both of us, that is our plan that we wish to make sure that somebody else has a chance, young or old, just to be able to enjoy life a little bit longer.”

Those looking to contribute to the family’s fundraiser can do so at gofund.me/12940c18.