Dr. Robert Rigolosi reminisces about his patient Ed Strudwick who lived for 39 years on dialysis. And Dr. Rigolosi was Ed's physician for all 39 years that he was on dialysis. Read Dr. Rigolosi's thoughts about his patient here.
Let Ed Strudwick's great example of living 39 years on dialysis give hope to the ESRD community that dialysis is not a death sentence, but rather it can be a life giving process which enables people to live long and productive lives!
Researchers (and ESRD patients themselves) should study and analyze dialysis centers and physicians whose patients are on the far side of the bell curve to try to figure out what increases life expectancy among these ESRD patients so that best practices can then be shared among the general ESRD population so that all people can benefit from what these physicians and dialysis centers are doing to elongate the lives of their patients.
Here is a very interesting excerpt from the article regarding longevity of patients on dialysis in Dr. Rigolosi's own words:
"Remind your dialysis patients that compliance is key. Ed's longevity was due to his full compliance with diet, medicine, scheduling, and follow-up. If you have a compliant patient like this, you can expect long-term survival."
"We have about 200 patients on dialysis in our center, and I would guess that 10% or 15% of them have been on dialysis for more than 35 years. We may have another 10% that have been on 20 to 30 years.[italics added] Patients do best when they embrace their new disease-driven lifestyle and accept what they have to do. Be sure they understand that they can't be too careful."
And it is important to keep in mind that according to the US Renal Data System 2011 Report, that 5 year survival probability rate in 2004 for people on hemodialysis was only 34%!
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