Getting comfortable

Getting comfortable

Posted By Ken MacPherson
Posted 6 hours ago

Three times a week, for four hours at a time, Mary LeFeuvre has to spend time at the Bancroft to her blood cleaned through the process of dialysis. She and nine others are currently patients of the relatively new dialysis unit, without which, they would have to travel to other hospitals for treatment. For LeFeuvre that trip used to be to Kingston, which essentially means three days a week away from home, unable to do anything else, not only for her, but for a driver.

"Sometimes I just don't feel like driving," she says.

She tried dialysis from home for a while, but that is not a long-term solution she says.

"When you do this from home, you have all of the administrative headaches to go with it. You have to manage the supplies, and you have no help when it comes to managing your diet."

Now, she is at the Bancroft facility, where she spends her time waiting, restricted in moving, whiling the time away by reading and watching television.

But she and her fellow patients are a little more comfortable these days, thanks to the work of the QHC Fund Development Committee.

"The Ministry of Health through its limited funding provides a building, but we have to supply a lot of the equipment that goes into it," says Mike McAlpine, committee member.

He, on behalf of the committee and hospital staff unveiled its newest piece of technology recently - a blanket warmer that aids in the comfort of dialysis patients.

"They don't get to move during treatments, and while the blood is warmed before being replaced in the body, it still makes patients chilled," says McAlpine.

The price tag for what essentially looks like a stainless steel oven, specifically built to health care specifications is in the range of $5,550.

"It's marvelous," says LeFeuvre.

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