GPHC gets US$38,000 dialysis machine

A dialysis machine valued US$38,000 was, on Thursday  donated to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) in the name of late Krishna Samaroo of De Kinderen Canal No.1 Polder, West Bank Demerara.

From left: Tara Mohamdee handing over the Dialysis Machine to representatives of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).

The machine was presented by Samaroo’s sister, Tara Mohamdee at the GPHC Central Stores Receiving Area.
Samaroo died in 2008 at the Balwant Singh Hospital. According to his sister, no one knew his cause of death, however, in his memory, the family wishes to make donations to several institutions, starting with the GPHC.
Medterms.com explains a dialysis machine as one that filters a patient’s blood to remove excess water and waste products when the kidneys are damaged, dysfunctional or missing.
The dialysis machine itself can be thought of as an artificial kidney. Inside, it consists of more plastic tubing that carries the removed blood to the dialyser, a bundle of hollow fibers that forms a semi-permeable membrane for filtering out impurities.
In the dialyser, blood is diffused with a saline solution called dialysate and the dialysate is in turn diffused with blood. When the filtration process is complete, the cleansed blood is returned to the patient.
Most patients who undergo dialysis because of kidney impairment or failure use a dialysis machine at a dialysis clinic.
Nurse in charge of the Renal Department at the GPHC, O’Delevana Kennedy expressed satisfaction on behalf of the hospital for receiving the equipment. She said that the hospital is currently operating on a four – machine unit and with the addition of this new piece of equipment, more patients needing dialysis can be accommodated.
Kennedy added that such a machine is not new to the nurses, as they are fully aware of how to operate it.