WILLEMSTAD - The dialysis team from Curaçao Medical Center (CMC) started doing personal visits to open the conversation and educate family and friends of patients with kidney failure. These sessions help loved ones gain a better understanding of what a patient is going through while also clarifying patients’ own questions. During these sessions the team, which includes a dialysis nurse and a social worker, explains the different treatments, including dialysis and transplantation. Patients who are looking into kidney transplant and those that are ready to undergo the transplant process are among the first on the list for the visits.
Patients can choose the location of the visit, which can range from the patient’s own home to a neighborhood center or CMC. What is important is that the location is a trusted and safe environment for the patients and loved ones to be able to ask questions and have an open conversation. In the Netherlands, these visits have been a common practice for more than 10 years. The group sizes can be up to 20 guests.
Dialysis is a treatment used to filter waste products from the blood when the kidneys aren’t functioning properly. CMC currently has 240 hemodialysis patients and 27 peritoneal dialysis patients. In Hemodialysis, the blood is cleaned outside the body using a dialysis machine and then sent back into the body. In peritoneal dialysis, a special liquid is put in the abdomen. As blood passes through blood vessels in the abdominal cavity, this liquid absorbs waste from them across the peritoneal membrane (lining of our abdomen). This polluted liquid is then drained away. This procedure can be done at home. This year, the CMC Nefrology and Dialysis team assisted 5 patients with their transplantation.