“It’s a health crisis:” the importance of kidney health during national kidney month

DELMARVA – “It’s a health crisis. It really is a health crisis,” said Nicole Scharf.

March marks national kidney month. Nicole Scharf of the National Kidney Foundation, a donor herself, said when it comes to treating chronic kidney disease, the cost can be overwhelming: “To put somebody in dialysis for one year, the cost for Medicare is over $100,000. Just to provide dialysis treatments three days a week, four hours at a time, for someone to be able to survive.” According to Scharf, this annual cost stands in contrast to the average one-time bill $62,000 for kidney transplant surgery.

Many people don’t know they’re at risk for chronic kidney disease. Diabetes and hypertension are two major factors that can put an individual at risk. Dr. Kazi Khan of Peninsula Nephrology Associates said, “A total of 80% of renal failure is because of these two diseases, so if you control these we can really help the patient’s kidneys, and keep them healthy and keep them going,” Dr. Khan continued, saying that if these go unchecked,  it can seriously affect your health: “Later on, when the kidney function goes too low, then you start building up fluids in your legs, in your lungs. You lose your appetite. You become nauseous. You start vomiting. Then it’s too late. Then all we can do is put patients on dialysis.”

Scharf painted a picture of dialysis being extremely draining for those who require it, saying “All of them are saying the same thing: it’s a complete lifestyle change… You’re essentially being hooked up with needles, and having all of the blood taken out of your body, cleansed, and put back in. It creates cramping. It causes them to sometimes become physically sick, very very tired.”

Scharf said she is grateful to be a donor, and she believes that with more awareness, more people might be willing to donate: “But there’s also not enough education out there. I feel like if more people knew about it, more people could get kidneys from living donors which is what we desperately need to get these people off of dialysis.”

According to Scharf, there are more than 1,600 people on the kidney transplant list in Maryland, while fewer than 400 transplants were performed last year.

For more information on chronic kidney disease and and kidney donation, visit kidney.org.