Debra Seaton and her nine-year-old son Theous Cudjoe. Seaton is in need of a kidney transplant and is seeking a donor. Photo: Marcus Gonzales

Clutching her nine-year-old son closely, a pleasant Debra Seaton points out several huge lumps on her upper right arm. They are blood clots, she said, which developed over the years after constantly having blood taken from her veins to be tested. Seaton’s both kidneys failed six years ago, a result doctors said, of high blood pressure. She said after her entire body began to swell, she knew that something serious was wrong, but never imagined that her kidneys no longer functioned.

“They (doctors) told me I was a ticking time-bomb,” she said, during an interview at the T&T Guardian. “I never even know I suffered with high blood pressure,” she said. The mission of the Morvant mother of three is to get a kidney transplant which would allow her to live a normal life. She is pleading with anyone with an O Positive blood type to come to her rescue by donating a kidney. She said because her kidneys had failed, she cannot urinate and as a result had to undergo dialysis three times a week at the John Hayes Clinic in Belmont.

Dialysis is a method of artificially removing impurities and and wastes from the body when the kidney is no longer able to do so on its own, she said. Since she cannot urinate, Seaton said, she cannot drink too much liquids. “If I drink too much it can overload in my lungs and could drown me,” she said. Seaton said she was unable to work because of her condition and was concerned for her son’s well-being. “I just want to get better to watch him grow. He is my youngest,” she said, frustration in her voice.

Her other two children are 27 and 17 years old, she said. She said her relatives were unable to donate a kidney because some did not have the required blood type while others were diabetic. The transplant, she said, would be done free of charge at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex. She said the donor would undergo several tests prior to the transplant and would be counselled as well.

Anyone willing to help Seaton can contact her at
498-3702,
716-0675 or
741-8276.