First Home Dialysis Patient

Smude, 65, who has been on dialysis for four years, is the city‘s first recipient of home hemodialysis which allows him to do his own treatment instead of going to the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre three times a week. “I can plan my days to be full of activity and still attend to dialysis later in the day in the convenience of my own home,” he said Monday.

Smude is also undergoing cancer treatment, and the chemotherapy and radiation have weakened his immune system, making him susceptible to infection. He said there are many people in the renal unit and he‘s concerned he could catch a bug from one of them which could make him seriously ill due to his compromised immune system.

“That was one of the things most important to me,” he said from his Townline Road home. Smude was travelling from his rural home to the hospital three times a week for the four-hour dialysis treatment. Those days are over.

Some modifications will have to be made to his home and the costs for these as well as the dialysis machine are covered by the Ministry of Health. Plumbing and electrical changes are required as is a temperature-controlled area to store supplies.

While Smude is the first, he will be followed by eight more patients doing home dialysis by March. “The merit of this strategy is patient-centered and allows these individuals to take back control of their lives,” said Lori Marshall, Vice-President of Medicine,Cardiology, Mental Health and Maternal/Child services.

Patients doing the treatment at home must undergo a training period of about eight weeks at the hospital. They must attend the hospital every six to eight weeks for assessment by the multidisciplinary team. A nurse and biomedical technician will go to each patient‘s home to set up the equipment and assist with the first home treatment. While Smude is experiencing some serious health problems, he said dialysis at home is a welcome change to his lifestyle.

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