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When Teresita Sayasa’s kidneys began to fail last year, her daughter Tracy Montemayor immediately offered to donate one of her own.
But Teresita, 71, was hesitant. What toll would transplant surgery take on Tracy? Would her daughter be able to live a full life with one kidney? What if Tracy’s teenage son or another younger relative needed one of her kidneys in the future?
“I told her that she wasn’t going to be able to survive this without me,” Tracy said Saturday.
And so on Dec. 5, a team of surgeons at Hackensack University Medical Center took one of Tracy’s kidneys and implanted it into Teresita.
On Saturday, mom, daughter and other family members gathered at a Korean barbecue restaurant to not only celebrate an early Mother’s Day but to mark Teresita’s new lease on life.
It was a long road to that point.
Teresita, a diabetic, began having kidney problems about three years ago. She was in and out of the hospital often. She eventually needed three days of dialysis treatment a week, sometimes more.
Last year was particularly hard for her, Tracy said. Teresita had a hard time walking. She was out of breath at the slightest bit of physical exertion. Tracy was able to help her mom at home and with doctor’s appointment. They only live a few blocks from each other in Hasbrouck Heights.
Teresita’s doctors told her that she may not last too long without a transplant. The easiest and fastest option was Tracy. Almost 5,000 patients on the transplant waiting list die each year in the U.S. without getting a kidney, according to the National Kidney Foundation.
If anyone knew the importance of transplants, it was Tracy. She is a certified medical assistant at Hackensack’s transplant department.
“I know the process,” she said. “I know what our patients go through. I know what it’s like to see a living donor give an organ to a loved one.”
Teresita was eventually convinced. The surgery went better than anyone anticipated. Teresita was able to go back to work as a clinical researcher at a pharmaceutical company. She can walk around without help or exhaustion, especially at one of her favorite haunts: the Meadowlands flea market. Tracy, 37, is also doing well on one kidney.
This Mother’s Day will be a special one for the family because this time last year they didn’t know if Teresita would even see it.
“It looks like she never had surgery, never had any kidney problems to begin with,” Tracy said Saturday. “We’re beyond grateful that she’s still with us and is back to living life like she did before.”
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