Man on dialysis to be honoured by company that keeps him alive

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Man on dialysis to be honoured by company that keeps him alive
Posted By ELIZABETH BOWER, EXAMINER STAFF WRITER
Posted 6 hours ago
   

The CEO of a $10-billion international company is flying from Germany to Canada next month to meet a Peterborough man who has survived dialysis for nearly 33 years.

Ben Lipps, Fresenius Medical Care CEO, will come to the company's Richmond Hill office and present an award to Peterborough's Ken Sharp, said Fresenius' Canadian director of sales Diana Chan.

Fresenius provides the dialysis machines that keep Sharp alive.

Most people on dialysis, depending on pre-existing medical conditions, live an average of 10 to 15 years, the Kidney Foundation of Canada has said.

So when Lipps read an Examiner article about Sharp's longevity, he wanted to meet him in person, Chan said.

"He was so proud of this patient and wanted to plan an event to recognize him," Chan said.

Fresenius will likely whisk Sharp away in a limo for the award ceremony that's tentatively set for March 21, Chan said.

Sharp, a 52-year-old King Street resident who grew up in Peterborough and attended Crestwood Secondary School, has chronic kidney failure.

Since he was a young man, Sharp has endured dialysis -- a process of getting hooked up to a machine that removes your blood and cleans it before putting it back in the body.

Sharp has this done three times per week, six hours at a time, at the Dialysis Management Clinic on High Street, across from Lansdowne Place. Sharp said he hopes the upcoming award will encourage dialysis patients. "I hope they think, 'If he can do it, I can do it," Sharp said.

People on dialysis often get discouraged and negative, Sharp said, because the process is time-consuming and can cause cramps. "It's a hard way to live," Sharp said.

While he's happy to be acknowledged for his longevity, he said the award is also bittersweet because he wants dialysis to become a thing of the past.

Sharp is a well-known proponent of U. S. research into a bioartificial kidney -- a device made of artificial tubes as well as human kidney cells.

Dr. David Humes, at the University of Michigan, is developing the device that is meant to replace a functioning kidney.

The first human trial was conducted in March, 2001 and the U. S. research continues. Humes' research team has told Sharp a clinical trial is now underway in China.

Sharp said it's his life mission to get Canadian researchers involved.

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