VALIA
Died in 1996.
A Bronx teen spent her first Christmas at home yesterday since her mom gave her a second gift of life — a kidney — and she had a present to give in return.
“It’s a book with photos about how I love her, photos of me and her,” said Gloria Mateo, 13, who received the transplant in August.
Her mother, Rosa Aquino, summed up the miracle: “She is my Christmas gift, and I am her Christmas gift.”
Aquino, 48, teared up the other day as she spoke of how her beloved daughter was born with abnormally small kidneys with reduced function.
“I knew since she was 1 month old that she would need a transplant,” said Aquino, a part-time field representative for the US Census Bureau.
“I feel doubly blessed by giving her life twice.”
“I had the opportunity to give birth to her, and I spent the next 13 years taking care of myself,” said Aquino, who exercised daily and abstained from alcohol in hopes that she could be the donor.
“I always asked God to give her one more day.”
For her part, Gloria, who got a pacemaker in 2009, can hardly contain her pride in her mother.
“I tell everyone in school that my mom is a hero because she was always there for me,” said Gloria, a seventh-grader at Dr. Richard Izquierdo Health and Science Charter School.
Dr. Rodrigo Sandoval, her surgeon at New York-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital, said her prognosis is “very good.”
In 1996, Aquino lost her first daughter, Valia. The 3-year-old died after fainting at a day- care center in the Dominican Republic and falling into a coma.
“I already lost one daughter, and I want to give [Gloria] a normal life,” Aquino said.
“The impotence of not being able to help your child is very, very difficult for a parent, and I know about that because I couldn’t help my first daughter.”
When doctors said Gloria needed a transplant, Aquino underwent tests to see if she was a match. So did her son and Gloria’s aunt. All were a match, but Aquino insisted that “I go first.”
“I felt good that it was my mom, because I knew all along that everything was going to work out,” Gloria said.