DIALYSIS PATIENT: Living To 100 Isn't Just Peanuts

06/19/2007

DIALYSIS PATIENT: Living To 100 Isn't Just Peanuts

By: Jenny DeHuff, The Bulletin

Philadelphia - Albert Talley celebrated his 100th birthday nearly two months ago, but his friends aren't letting him forget it. The streamers are still up, the party hats around and you can smell cake remains somewhere in the building.
The reason why? He just may be the oldest living man with two failed kidneys.
According to Jeremy Wilkerson, administrator of DeVita, an outpatient dialysis facility in the Cobbs Creek section of the city, in his decades of experience in the medical field, he has never seen an individual live to see the centennial mark as Talley has.
Talley himself is unfazed. He said putting God first and taking one step at a time has kept him kicking, in spite of the kidney dialysis treatments he receives almost every day.
Talley is a patient at DeVita, where his blood is "purified" by dialysis. During treatment, vital fluids are added and returned to his veins. He has been doing this for eight years.
Talley attributes his health condition to eating too many salted peanuts.
"I would go through two or three cans a week," he said. After complaining of not feeling well, Talley admitted himself to the hospital, where doctors discovered a 104-degree fever and two failed kidneys. He has undergone dialysis ever since.
Wilkerson said most of the 120 patients at DeVita often come from urban, lower-income parts of the city. Most visit on average of three times a week for several hours at a time.
Talley gets treatment Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays for four hours at a time.
Following an interview with The Bulletin, and at the direction of Talley's primary patient care technician (PCT), DeVita staff members dressed in lied at Talley's bedside. They sang him a lively rendition of "Happy Birthday," while party streamers boasting "100!" hung from ceiling air conditioning vents.
It seemed not a bad place to spend several hours of "blood cleaning."
"I feel great," Talley said about his birthday. "And now I'm trying for another one."
Wilkerson said the mortality rate averages for patients at his facility fared better than other DeVita branches.
"We have a culture of caring," Wilkerson said of his 30-member staff.
"This is really a close-knit community."
Kidney dialysis patients have to undergo a regimented schedule of coming in for treatments, following a stringent diet and taking medication regularly.
In Talley's case, Wilkerson said he is one of the most independent of the patients at DeVita.
Talley spends a total of 12 hours a week hooked up to the dialysis machine, which looks like a large computer with scrolling numbers and tubes filled with blood sticking out of it.
Angela McCray, a DeVita PCT, said she oversees Talley most of the time when he's at the facility.
"They have an amazing bond," Wilkerson said.
Talley, a native of West Philadelphia, spent five years in the U.S. Army as a staff sergeant, an unusually high rank for a black man during World War II. His business was to manage the motor pool (or the auto mechanic department).
At 38 years old, Talley said the Army refused to discharge him, deeming him indispensable.
"Being a tradesman in the Army got me ready for work," he said.
In Calcutta, India, Talley said some of the most rewarding work he did was interacting with the locals and diamond merchants. Some of his saddest moments were spent watching a small village burn to the ground at the hand of Japanese militants. He lost one of his fingers in combat during that time.
Talley fathered 14 children and married four times. He has outlived all his wives and is unsure of the whereabouts of his children.
"I always wanted a woman of my own," Talley mused.
When Talley was finally released from the Army, he said it was tough for blacks to find employment outside of a "common laborer."
Many white men in ranks lower than him had little trouble finding work, but Talley said the day he received a $10 compensation check from the military was the last straw.
"I went into the Army office, I said, how can $10 feed my family of four? I told them while they're sitting there on their butts with their pen and paper, I was out fighting for their freedom. I fought for these rights and nobody's gonna take them away from me," he said.
Following his outburst in the Army dispatch office, Talley said he got a job as a driver for an admiral in the U.S. Navy.
"If you don't fight for your rights, you won't even get them," he said.
When asked the secret of his longevity, Talley tapped his head and said,
"It's all up here."
Several different transportation companies bring Talley to and from the DeVita clinic. In the meantime, he said he spends a lot of time at home with his three cats.

Jenny DeHuff can be reached at jdehuff@thebulletin.us