Lifestyle changes unwelcome for dialysis patients

Page 10

Gilbert Stone, 60, from Michipicoten First Nation, lived on the reserve all his life until a year-and-a-half ago. In June 2001, his fourth heart attack sent the diabetic man to hospital.

Stone was transferred by air ambulance from Wawa to Sault Ste. Marie General Hospital, where he stayed for three months and received hemodialysis treatment.

During dialysis, the blood is cleaned and filtered through a dialysis machine.

"I now have to go to dialysis three times a week if I want to live," Stone said.

He and his family had to relocate to Sault Ste. Marie so that he could have the dialysis treatment.

"I am not the same person since I moved here. I want to be home with my people and all of my friends in Wawa. This is a very frustrating thing when people can't live in their own communities, especially when they are sick."

Stone said he wrote to his band a month-and-a half ago, asking it to donate $10,000 towards two dialysis machines. He has received no reply yet.

He said his plan is to get support from as many bands as possible in the region, as one machine is worth about $40,000.

Evelyn Stone, a community health promotion worker with the Michipicoten First Nation, strongly supports Gilbert's idea to bring a dialysis machine to the local hospital in Wawa, a community of 3,600 people.

"We have the experience of people in our community travelling three hours to have their dialysis," she said, adding that three people in Michipicoten alone would use the machine.

Frank Buerkle, CEO of the Lady Dunn Health Centre in Wawa, said he looked into getting a dialysis machine for the hospital about a year-and-a-half ago.

"We didn't have the numbers to justify. The ministry won't even look at it unless you have about 10 people on renodialysis, because the equipment is quite expensive." Buerkle said it also costs to train nurses to operate the machine.

He said he had talked to local physicians and knows of only two people in the area who require dialysis. "So I think if we're only looking at one or two people. Maybe we should look at home dialysis units, and in the case of First Nations, maybe one of those units could be located at their community centre in a room."

He said home dialysis could be a first step. "Then once the numbers are up, we could look at the special dialysis unit."

Joyce Atcheson, media relations officer with the National Aboriginal Health Organization (NAHO), said NAHO is spearheading a health survey for First Nations and Inuit at present.

"There is no breakdown on dialysis needs available through Health Canada or through us," she said. "As far as whether it could be done in smaller communities or not, it depends on what access they have to running water and sewage, because dialysis machines have to be hooked up to that, and they also then have to have someone who is trained in order to be able to run dialysis units," she said. "Most small communities do not have that."