Mapleton man receives second kidney transplant

By Michael Pommier

Herald-Tribune

MAPLETON, Kan. -- Bobby Dean Clayton will be getting a new lease on life next week ... again.

On Dec. 29, Clayton will have a second kidney transplant at the University of Kansas Medical Center, after receiving his first transplant 15 years ago.

Clayton received his first transplant on June 7, 1995, from his sister, Terry Airey, who was the first of his siblings to get tested and proved to be a positive match. With that kidney failing quickly, Clayton's 25-year-old daughter Jamie Johnston was more than willing to help.

"I just told him," Johnston said. "Of course he refused ... but I had to talk him into it."

"I hated to take one from my sister, I really hate to take one from my daughter," Clayton said. "You never know if they're going to need one in 30 years."

Johnston, who is the third oldest of Clayton's six children, was the first to get tested and come back as a match for her father.

"I was just praying that I would be a match, I knew he needed a kidney really quick," Johnston said.

Clayton said he did not want her to have to go through the surgery and that he wanted her to keep her kidney in case she needed it later in life, but Johnston persisted with her father until he agreed.

"Any father would (try to talk their child out of donating a kidney) ... Jamie is real stubborn, she pushed the whole thing," Clayton said.

With the surgery getting closer, Clayton knows that it has to happen soon. He said when a person is suffering from renal failure, they get sick very easily. He said his kidney is only working at about 10 percent and his health is declining everyday.

"I should have been on dialysis before now but I just didn't want to," he said. "I was on dialysis before and I don't want to go back on them again."

Although Clayton put up some resistance to taking a kidney from his daughter, he is very happy she was willing to help him.

"No matter if it is Christmas or not, it is always a special gift," Clayton said. "You just can't put it into words what it means to you. It is kind of the gift of life."

"I'm excited, it's life for him," Johnston said. "To be able to make him start feeling better, I'm happy to do it."

Clayton's family are not strangers to tragedy. Clayton's oldest son died in a car accident almost 10 years ago and his youngest son is in remission from cancer. In addition, he had a friend and a cousin who both died of kidney failure.

Clayton lost his kidneys 15 years ago due to hypertension.

He was driving home from Kansas City and he kept losing feeling in his arms and legs.

If the transplant does not work, he said he would have to wait another two years before getting a kidney from a cadaver, in addition to going back on dialysis.