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Hospital re-instates dialysis
Published November 6, 2009
For years patients at Val Verde Regional Medical Center in need of dialysis had to leave town for treatment, but that has all changed.
On Thursday Enrique Martinez was wrapping up a four-hour dialysis session at the hospital.
He is the first patient to undergo the procedure since it was reinstated at the hospital on an in-patient basis.
While admitted to the hospital for other health issues, doctors learned Martinez's kidneys were failing him.
If he'd been admitted last month, his nurses say Martinez, who is in his mid-50s, would have to be transported to either San Antonio or San Angelo for treatment.
“This is really a good thing for the patients, who can now stay closer to family, and don't have the additional stress of being moved,” said Licensed Vocational Nurse Luz Euresti, who is also a certified hemodialysis nurse.
Euresti is one of a team of nurses contracted by Val Verde Regional Medical Center through Fresenius Medical Center to provide dialysis treatments.
But, the key to the new service is a nephrologist named Dr. Mohamed Shafiu, says hospital chief operations officer Jose Romo.
“He's the big addition to the community; without him we couldn't do this,” said Romo Thursday.
Shafiu moved to Del Rio in July, becoming Del Rio's first full-time nephrologist in several years.
Shafiu, whose father received dialysis treatments for years, eventually needing a kidney transplant, says he understands the importance of keeping patients close to their families.
“It is very, very difficult, not only for the patient, but for the family,” says Shafiu of transporting patients out of town. “Not to mention the expense.”
Then, there was the issue of time, says Shafiu, who estimates there are about 150 patients in need of routine dialysis treatments.
It can take hours to schedule a transfer, then the three hour drive, adds up to a more than six hour gap from the time a doctor orders treatment, to when it is received, he explained.
“Offering it here…we can help right away,” said Shafiu.
Dialysis treatments are common among diabetes sufferers and obese patients, as kidney failure is a common side effect of those ailments.
A machine filters the patient's blood and does the job of the kidneys in removing toxins before filtering the blood back into the body.
Dialysis procedures can take hours, but Martinez said it wasn't painful.
For Martinez, Thursday's treatment was his first.
He said the staff at the hospital was friendly, and the experience overall very good.
Shafiu, who also spends his time working with patients on methods to help ensure they don't need dialysis, said his reward is seeing a patient on the path to recovery.
“It's rewarding to see a smile on a patient when they know they're getting better,” said Shafiu, who works for Renal Associates, P.A., the company that operates Fresenius.
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