First dialysis centre opens in Belize

If you are acquainted with anyone who has suffered kidney failure, then you know that the unfortunate victim has two choices: go abroad for regular dialysis treatments or stay home and die. As of last week, however, the prognosis for Belizean kidney patients has markedly improved…thanks to a new service offered by a Belize City medical centre. Jacqueline Woods reports.

Jacqueline Woods, Reporting

Eight months ago, Fifteen-year-old Michael Reynard experienced kidney failure after suffering for years with a bladder problem.

Joanna Reynard, Mother

“He was born with a bad bladder, and because of the urine not coming out clean, it gave him and infection in the kidney, reflux, so that cause the kidney to destroy the kidney.”

Jacqueline Woods

“So after the kidney failed, what kind of treatment was he receiving?”

Joanna Reynard

“After it failed, for a while nothing, just every month or so I was checking with the doctor and the blood.”

Michael’s mother, Joanna, says doctors told her that her son would eventually need to receive haemodialysis treatment to help his kidneys function properly. His condition greatly affected Michael’s everyday life.

Michael Reynard, Kidney Patient

“Because sometimes I have to miss a lot of school and I don’t have the strength to go to school and that’s one way it affects me.”

It is not certain just how many patients like Reynard are in Belize, but according to Dr. Miguel Rosado, a kidney specialist, there is a high demand for both hemo and peritoneal dialysis treatment. The life and death situation prompted Universal Health Services to move quickly and establish the first dialysis centre in Belize.

Miguel Rosado, Kidney Specialist, U.H.S.

“The patient had to export themselves abroad either to Merida, Guatemala or to the U.S. in order for them to have a continuous medical treatment through haemodialysis. Having this centre opened today, I think we are offering what we have been lacking for the last thirty years, so we are catching up with technology. We are catching up with a treatment that is basic for many patients, especially the patient who are living abroad and want to come back home. So it’s an option to be in Belize, to come back to Belize. The demand is there, we know patients are calling here, because they want to programme their vacations from the States and other parts of the world, and I think that it will make a difference in regards to the type and quality of life that we could provide to our patients.”

During last week, Beverly Nickerson, a dialysis nurse from the United States has been training nurses at U.H.S. to conduct the procedure. Nickerson says the machine has several components including special filters that help to clean the blood of toxic substances the body produces and cannot eliminate on its own.

Beverly Nickerson, Dialysis Nurse

“These are called blood lines. The patient’s blood filled in these lines and it leaves the patient’s body and goes through this filter. The filter is called a dialyser; it’s an artificial kidney, that’s the part that cleans the blood. It goes in the filter and then out of the filter and then the filter is washed with a chemical solution with potassium, calcium, dextrose and it washes the blood and cleans the blood.”

Jacqueline Woods

“What is connected to the patient?”

Beverly Nickerson

“These are connected to the patient, it’s actually opened up and this line is connected to the patient, the blood comes out this way, goes through the filter and returns to the patient.”

Jacqueline Woods

“Is it a painful procedure?”

Beverly Nickerson

“It’s not painful, the complication is often that they have low blood pressure and sometimes they don’t feel very good during the treatment. So what we do is lie them flat and sometimes give them a salt solution and then they feel better during the treatment.”

The treatment takes about two to four hours. Reynard would have been the first patient to receive the treatment, but due to a low blood count he was unable to go through the procedure. Nevertheless, the Reynard family and others like them are comforted by the fact that there is immediate help available to them.

Joanna Reynard

“Well its good that they have the machine here, because there is a lot of people right here in this country that have this problem with the kidney and they would need to be on the machine.”

Jacqueline Woods

“We both know as diabetics just how important the dialysis machine is. Because of your recent experience, tell us how you feel about what’s taking place at Universal Health Services?”

Andrea Fonseca, Diabetic Patient

“Well, I have to say I am so happy that we now have another option in Belize for the treatment of renal failure because it is so important that the patient suffering from this get some quick treatment. And its good to know that it’s all here in Belize and I think everyone has this problem should take advantage of it.”

In the United States, the procedure can cost up to eight hundred Belize dollars for each session. In Belize, Dr. Rosado says they are currently comparing prices in the U.S. and the Caribbean to see how affordable they can make the treatment to patients in Belize. Jacqueline Woods for News 5.

If you would like more information on the dialysis centre you can call Universal Health Services at telephone number 224-5537.