 He complied on the spot; the next day Senator Robert Dole scheduled it for the floor; and on December 16, 1985, 4 days after the House passed the bill, the Senate had too, and President Ronald Reagan signed it into law.During much of his political career, Grotberg successfully battled cancer, including experimental treatments at the National Institutes of Health that later became standard therapies throughout the US and the world.As a pioneer patient, Grotberg gave to the future and died at home surrounded by his wife and five children on November 15, 1986.