Renal patients across the country are often in distress anytime the government announces an increase in the cost of dialysis treatments or the closure of public dialysis centres.
The increase in the cost of dialysis or the closure of public dialysis centres makes it even more difficult for renal patients, who already struggle with the government-subsidised cost of dialysis treatment, to receive the required three sessions of dialysis per week.
Michael Asante, a kidney disorder patient who receives dialysis treatment at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, in an interview on GhanaWeb’s #SayItLoud, explained the importance of the treatment to the survival of renal patients like him, and what they go through any time they do not receive treatment in a week.
Asante, a former insurance worker who has now been rendered jobless, said a week without dialysis essentially means hospitalisation the following week.
He indicated that without dialysis, they are unable to breathe and have many parts of their bodies swollen with a lot of pain.
He explained that they go through all this because of the toxins in their blood, which the dialysis treatment would have cleared out of their system.
“It (dialysis) performs certain functions of the kidney, especially with the clearance of fluids from the body system, from the blood and the clearance of toxins from the blood system.
“When these things are not cleared from the system, it’s where you begin to experience these kinds of conditions of swelling foot or swelling face, you experience nausea, start to vomit, you become uncontrollable, you struggle to breathe because there are lots of fluids within the body system that need to be cleared,” he explained.
Michael Asante, who was forced to drop his dream of becoming a lawyer after writing the Ghana Law School Entrance Examination, recalled the ordeal he goes through every time he fails to get dialysis treatment in a week.
“If I don’t do the session, it’s very bad! I will not even be able to conduct this interview. It’s very bad! I can’t even control myself. If I don’t do it within two weeks, I’ll be forced to go on admission.
“Even with one session, for instance, you struggle to breathe because there are still fluids within you. The toxins make you feel uncomfortable. Sometimes, there’s this condition that may arise when you are not doing the dialysis or even you are doing it once a week, called gastritis. It’s a very sharp pain within your tummy, you experience when you are not doing the dialysis adequately or effectively. Because when you are not doing, you are doing one session, the clearance is not effective. It’s not adequate," he said.
He added, “So, you struggle sometimes - you get swollen feet, our faces swell and we sometimes experience this sharp pain within (gastritis). That’s what we go through. So, when you begin to experience these things, you’ll be forced to go on admission.”
The renal patient further narrated how he keeps himself when he knows there is no money at home for him to seek dialysis treatment in a week.
“Usually, when there’s no money, hmmm it’s very difficult. I’m forced to control what I take in, and what I drink. Usually, when it happens like that, I’m not able to eat because of the nausea, and the vomiting, and I’m forced to control the fluid I take in. So, sometimes these conditions, when it happens, I’ll be forced to lie on the couch. I have to bend down just to be able to breathe because I struggle to breathe. Then I have to bend down and stay there for some time till, let’s say in the afternoon, when it comes down,” he added.
Watch the interview on GhanaWeb TV below:
Ghana’s leading digital news platform, GhanaWeb, in conjunction with the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, is embarking on an aggressive campaign which is geared towards ensuring that parliament passes comprehensive legislation to guide organ harvesting, organ donation, and organ transplantation in the country.
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