Woman survives 32 years on dialysis

[okarol]

Woman survives 32 years on dialysis

By TRACY WHEELER
Akron Beacon Journal
2/18/07

AKRON, Ohio - It's a disconcerting question, but one Ruth Reynolds hears often: Why are you still alive?

The actual phrasing might be offered in gentler language -- How do you do it? What's your secret? -- but she knows what they're really asking.

And her answer is, "By the grace of God."

Reynolds is only 53, but what's amazing about her survival is that she has been on dialysis for 32 of those 53 years.

To get an idea of how significant that is, consider that just 10 percent of patients in the United States survive on dialysis for more than 10 years.

"There are not a lot of people who live on dialysis for 32 years," said Dr. Babiker Eltayeb, a nephrologist now caring for Reynolds. "I've done my own research... and in the Northeast Ohio region, I believe Ruth is the longest-living surviving dialysis patient."

There might be one or two patients in the Seattle area who have survived 35 or 36 years on dialysis, Eltayeb said, and there are a few people in France who have survived 37 or 38 years.

Other than that, though, there's little in the medical literature about people surviving more than three decades on dialysis.

"She could easily be one of the top 10 longest-surviving patients on dialysis in the world," he said.

Reynolds suffers from Alport syndrome, a hereditary condition that leads to end-stage renal disease, usually between adolescence and middle age.

Her kidneys failed when she was 21, two years after giving birth to her daughter.

Her sister died at the age of 16 from the same kidney disorder.

"I was in the third grade," she said, "and I remember the doctor saying we should all be checked out."

More than a decade later, Reynolds was on dialysis and waiting for a new kidney.

Since then, two transplants have failed -- one in the '70s and one in the '80s -- and she's been on dialysis three hours a day, three days a week for 32 years.

http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/living/health/16727544.htm?source=rss&channel=montereyherald_health

[okarol]

Did I misread this?
She had 2 transplants - so she is counting 32 years of kidney failure as continuous dialysis?

[jbeany]

Maybe the transplants failed immediately, meaning she never got off dialysis even for a day?

[bluedove57]

I believe it is by faith and the Grace of God. I have great admiration for her

[renal30yrs]

Either poor reseacrch or bad reporting.  Wordlwide there are plenty of those who are living over 35 years of dialysis (non-stop).

[Sluff]

Good on Miss Reynolds.    Why are they doing the article? Why didn't they wait until she survived 50 years?  Maybe they will update this at the 50year mark.

[NickL]

There is a person in my center who's been on hemodialysis for 36 or 37 years. She calls herself a survivor - I call her a champion. I did not know that statistic of 10 years. I wonder if it was broken down more as to age, underlying dx, etc. if it would seem so scary. There are many of us, I believe, who are on dialysis for more than 10 years who might worry over such a number had we not lived past the 10 year mark and are still going strong - maybe we should start a Dialysis Games which would shed some light on the fact that there are so many of us - with so little support.

[renal30yrs]

The main reason why we don't seem to see more patients with over 33 years of dialysis is because the Medicare in this country didn't pay for the treatment before.  The "Death Committee" weeded out many perfectly eligible candidates for dialysis that would have survived to this date before then.