Duarte receives 'priceless' gift

[okarol]

1/10/2008 11:27:00 AM
Duarte receives 'priceless' gift

by Marcia Martinek
Herald Editor

Many women complain about their daughters-in-law. Mary Duarte is not one of these women.

In November 2007, her daughter-in-law gave Duarte a very special gift: one of her kidneys.

Kim Clifton, who grew up in Leadville and now lives in Canon City, is the daughter of Jerry and Cathy Cerise and is married to Scott, Duarte's son.

Duarte has had diabetes for a long time, which has affected her kidneys. She had been undergoing dialysis treatments, and a kidney transplant was the only way to effect a cure. She noted she could have continued on dialysis indefinitely.

"But she (Kim) wanted me to have a better quality of life," Duarte said.

Most people have to wait three to five years for a kidney transplant, Duarte said. Her son Scott Clifton was not eligible as a donor, and Kim Clifton was one of several people who agreed to be tested. It turned out that she was the best bet.

"I was able to help someone live a better life," Kim Clifton said of her offer to donate. "Hopefully it will work for her."

The experience was relatively easy. Kim Clifton said that she was back to work in three weeks, suffering no ill effects.

Duarte said that a kidney from a live donor is so much better than one from a cadaver, as the organ can be removed from one person and transplanted into the next in a matter of minutes.

Kim Clifton said she was not at all fearful about the procedure. It turns out that donating kidneys to mothers-in-law runs in the family. Several years earlier, her brother Brian Cerise donated one of his kidneys to his mother-in-law.

Duarte has had some complications since the operation. She developed an infection and had to be rushed to the hospital, Presbyterian-St. Luke, by helicopter. She also faces taking anti-rejection drugs for the rest of her life.

But the kidney is doing well and "turned 34 years old on Wednesday," Duarte said.

She also credits her husband, Deputy Sheriff Max Duarte, for being her caregiver through all this.

Mary Duarte has composed her own words for a commercial, a take-off on the MasterCard ads: "One Flight For Life to Denver by helicopter - $17,651; one month of anti-rejection drugs - $750; the donation of a kidney by my daughter-in-law - priceless."

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