By Atty. Antonio P. Pekas
No they are not in their deathbed. While most of them are elderlies, they are still alive and kicking. A lot of them have still a good number of years ahead of them. Reportedly, the longest surviving dialysis patient at the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center has been patronizing their services for 20 years already. Yes, they can live that long.
A dialysis machine is like a small refrigerator with a computer monitor on top. Beside it is a bucket seat as big as that of a bus front seat. When you are seated, they lift up the part where the feet rest so you can sort of lie down when the backrest is inclined. Then when the machine is ready after being cleaned up in and out every time after servicing each patient, a filter is placed on its side and a lot of other transparent plastic tubes. Then your blood, flowing through a catheter connected to a blood vessel on the side of your neck would go to the filter via a plastic tube. Your blood flowing through the tubes would be right before your eyes.
The filter cleanses your blood as your kidneys would if only they were still OK. For the metabolic processes of your body generate wastes that need to be cleansed. It should be a constant process. With impaired kidneys, wastes accumulate in the body, so the need for dialysis. Without that you will eventually get sick and die.
After each patient, the dialysis machine is disconnected from you and cleaned in and out. The blanket over the bucket seat placed like a seat cover is yanked out and the upholstery is wiped clean with alcohol by the attending nurse. The seat is also pulled so its underneath can be swept and mopped even if they are still very shiny. After putting on a new seat cover, and the machine cleaned in and out, the setup is ready again for the next patient.
The cleaning up and priming the machine and attaching new tubes and a filter takes about one hour.
The processes keep the center and the machines antiseptically clean to assure no diseases are transmitted or created. A lot of chemicals are involved, either they are put into the machine or injected into your body. These assure the maintenance of your health during and after. For some imbalances or complications can occur which can in the end become fatal.
There are doctors in the center just in case of any problems. Some patients vomit or experience chills or become dizzy or their blood pressures rise to unhealthy levels. The cry of children patients can be incessant perhaps due to the stress of the four-hour or three-hour process even if it is actually painless. Patients usually endure going through it three times or twice a week. Rare cases go through it only once. Some, whose kidneys were able to recover were weaned from that medical necessity.
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