It’s one thing to buy your mother flowers or a gift certificate to the spa for Mother’s Day – but it’s a whole other thing to give her the gift of life. In a reversal of roles, thanks to the miracle of kidney donation, a New Jersey daughter was able to give her own mother the gift of life, 37 years after her mom gave her life.
Tracy Montemayor donated a kidney to her mother Teresita Sayasa. “It definitely strengthened our bond. This was a huge deal for us. To me I just did it out of love. I love my mother. And I want her to see her grandchild graduate high school,” said Tracy Montemayor, a Certified Medical Assistant, who also works at Hackensack University Medical Center, where the transplant took place.
But before the kidney donation was a go, Tracy had to convince her 71 year old mom with diabetes and kidney failure, that this was a good idea. Tracy relied on her knowledge from working in the Department of Organ Transplantation for the past year to help.
“I told her nephrologist right away that I was willing to do this. At first my mom didn’t want me to donate my kidney. She worried about her grandson who is 16 — just in case he needed it one day. I explained to her how the living donor process works. And I told her, ‘Mom, it doesn’t look like you’re going to live much longer if we don’t do this.’ “
Tracy says working in the transplant department at that time and being able to lean on other team members for support was a huge blessing. “The whole team helped me out from start to end,” she said.
Hackensack University Medical Center’s Kidney Transplant Program is among the fastest-growing in the nation. Patients who come to Hackensack for kidney transplantation have much shorter waiting times than other centers in the tri-state area due to the donor-recipient matching.
Patients in need of a kidney, who aren’t as lucky as Teresita to have a family member who can donate, register with Hackensack University Medical Center’s Kidney transplantation program, as can interested living donors. Once a compatible organ is available the team will schedule the surgery. Using the LifePort Kidney Transporter, a machine preservation technology, to increase a kidney’s viability and lifespan, HUMC is able to provide patients with new kidneys faster and with better outcomes. After successful kidney transplant a patient will no longer need dialysis or other kidney disease treatments.
Just four months post surgery, Tracy is happy to share that she feels back to normal, and her mom has gotten her life back. Prior to the donation, Tracy’s mom felt physically drained from regular dialysis, but not anymore. The transplant was not only life saving, but life changing.
“Before the transplant she was a different person. She was not herself and was not motivated, which led to her feeling depressed. She was always swollen and fatigued.”
Teresita is now back to work and is staying on top of her medical follow ups. Best of all, Tracy believes her mother will be at her son’s high school graduation. Asked what being able to do this for her mother means to her? Tracy says “everything.”
“I am so thankful to my daughter and the team at Hackensack University Medical Center. It is a blessing to know I will see my grandson grow up and go back to living an active life,” said Teresita about her daughter’s generosity. “None of that would have happened without the amazing gift from my daughter and the team at HUMC,” said Teresita Sayasa.
“Giving one person life has a huge impact. Not only for the recipient but the donor. The fact that I can save someone’s life, especially my own mother’s, is really important. I like to pride myself on being a giving person. I like to take care of others before I take care of myself. I’m really proud that I was able to do that,” Tracy said.
Both mother and daughter are available for interviews ahead of Mother’s Day, about how they gave each other the gift of life.
For more information, contact Mary McGeever at Mary.McGeever@hmhn.org.
