Mom drives around with sign, seeking kidney donor for daughter

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Mom drives around with sign, seeking kidney donor for daughter

02:26 PM CST on Thursday, December 25, 2008

By Kevin Reece / 11 News

SPRING, Texas -- Two days before Christmas, while the rest of us raced and rambled from store to store, Theresa Booth sat wrapped in a blanket.  That is her normal routine.

A TV was her only diversion while a machine cleaned her blood.

"Without dialysis I would die," said Booth.

Booth’s kidneys are gone. She lost them to disease. Dialysis is what keeps her alive, and she has to go through it three days a week for four hours a day.

"This does save my life. But sometimes I just say I wish I didn't have to do it, because it's so hard," said Booth.

Maxine Kotowski is Theresa’s mom.  She drives a red van with a sign on the driver's side that has a phone number, two blood types and an urgent plea for a transplant donor.

“You never quit being a mom or dad. Once you're a parent, it doesn't matter how old your children get, you are always trying to fix their problems," said Kotowski.

If you want to help, call 281-681-0318.

"At first I got very upset with her. It was like she was out there begging for a kidney," said Booth.

But while she didn't agree with her mother's tactics, Theresa also knows that she's one of more than 300,000 people in this country who are kept alive by the tedious and time-consuming ritual of dialysis.

Now she lets her mom keep the signs, and let's her keep driving and reinforcing to others on the road that a kidney donation might save someone's life.

"Even if they don't help me, maybe they can help someone else," said Booth.

Theresa has been on dialysis for more than six years. She knows her body can't take the treatment too much longer.

But as she leaves Davita Spring Dialysis three times each week, she gets in that red van with her mom to get back to the life that she's trying to live.

"That's what's keeping me going: Dialysis and grandbabies. Otherwise I wouldn't be right here today...and that's the truth," said Booth.

http://www.khou.com/news/local/stories/khou081224_mp_kidney-donor-needed.3612dee.html?npc#