Lack of dialysis machines a life or death situation

Lack of dialysis machines a life or death situation

Posted By Tyler Clarke
Posted 2 hours ago
Nipawin Journal, Saskatchewan

Carrot River resident Fern Penner must get her husband, Jake, to drive her to Saskatoon three times a week, or she risks dying.

While in Saskatoon she is hooked up to a dialysis machine for about four hours, where somewhere between a cup and a cup and a half of blood is taken out of her, and then pumped back in, newly purified.

"It doesn't hurt at all," she said, though the first time she went through dialysis she ended up sick for a few days. As a result of 20 years of diabetes, her kidneys no longer filter her blood enough, necessitating dialysis.

Thanks to a Hemodialysis Catheters in her neck, which hook up to veins, with one taking blood out and the other putting purified blood back in, she doesn't have to suffer any additional pokes in the process. A similar device called a fistula was previously placed in her arm, though her veins proved too small for the necessary process.

Penner has been using dialysis machines since Feb. 12 of this year. In November of last year, her kidneys began to fail. From February to April she went back and forth to Saskatoon. In April, a dialysis machine in Tisdale freed up, though by Nov. 10 the person whose absence had freed up the space returned, and Penner was sent back to Saskatoon.

"It can get dangerous on those roads during the winter," Penner's only daughter Sheila Yip said, adding that it can take them between five and six hours to get to Saskatoon.

Three days a week, Fern and Jake Penner leave Carrot River for Saskatoon by 7 a.m., and don't return home until 10 p.m. The process would be made a lot easier and safer if there were an available dialysis unit closer to home.

"The majority of the people in the area don't even know what dialysis is," Yip said. "There is a valid need for these things… This is a life or death situation."

The four dialysis machines in the Kelsey Trail Health Region do not match the needs of the people, and the fact that they are all in the Tisdale Hospital leads to people constantly traveling to Tisdale from throughout the entire region.

"It would be a dream to have a dialysis unit in the Nipawin Hospital," Yip said. "Once you're on you're on for life."

Although Penner is currently next on the waiting list, Yip said six people are behind her.

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"For someone to get off that waiting list someone has to die, or move," Yip said, adding they can also get kidney transplants.

The four dialysis machines are used by 16 patients. Only one additional machine should help four more people, significantly cutting down the dialysis waiting list.

In addition to a lack of enough dialysis machines, the Tisdale Hospital currently doesn't have enough room for more dialysis machines in their unit, though there is room slated for an expansion, pending funding for construction.

As such, Yip has started up a petition for more dialysis machines to be installed in the Tisdale Hospital, as well the expansion of the dialysis unit to accommodate these machines. She's begun handing them out to various people in the communities surrounding Tisdale. She plans on heading up to Red Earth and Shoal Lake, as First Nations have a higher prevalence of diabetes than Canadians as a whole do, and therefore have a much higher chance of utilizing the dialysis machines.

"We're getting a really good response," Yip said. "It's about getting the government's attention."

Kelsey Trail Health Region representative Peggy Ratcliffe said that the cost to maintain the machines in the dialysis unit have been funded by various local groups and clubs since the unit was installed about 10 years ago. About every five years the machines require replacement, costs groups such as the Elks and Royal Purple help pay through their fundraising efforts.

Yip said she is currently planning additional fundraising efforts for the dialysis unit, and that upcoming events and efforts may be announced soon.

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