Access to life-saving kidney care expands in Lethbridge

New unit grows capacity for inpatient hemodialysis and home-care training

Story & photo by Patrick Burles

LETHBRIDGE — “It’s like you’ve gone on a bit of a holiday … this wonderful feeling of coming in here,” says Wayne Heggie, smiling as he shares what was once an unfathomable thought for the 73-year-old Lethbridge resident.

Roughly five-and-a-half years earlier, he received the difficult news from his family doctor that his survival would depend on regular dialysis visits for the rest of his life. Those visits would be at Chinook Regional Hospital (CRH) three times a week for upwards of five hours each time.

“It keeps you alive, but it takes away a lot of things,” says Heggie. “You don’t have free time to do everything that you’d like, and you usually leave here tired and drained.”

It didn’t help that the hemodialysis unit he started attending at CRH was aging, and as demand in the region increased, it started to become cramped. 

That was until July 20, when a brand-new Alberta Kidney Care South Hemodialysis unit opened at the site, funded by $23 million from the Government of Alberta.

“I haven’t seen the whole place yet, but I sure like this little spot I have right here,” Heggie says of his new surroundings.

From a practical standpoint, the most important feature of the new space is the additional treatment stations that allow the unit to support 180 hemodialysis patients a week, up from 144. Importantly, the expansion has also allowed for the development of a separate Kidney Care Clinic, which had previously been integrated within the hemodialysis unit. More room for the Kidney Care Clinic means greater capacity to train patients in home-based therapies.

“That’s huge for Lethbridge,” says Susan Jorgensen, CRH Unit Manager with Alberta Kidney Care South. “If we train those patients who are eligible to do dialysis at home, that will take pressure off the hemodialysis centre.

“It’s also about public life for our patients. A lot of them live out of town. Many drive a half-hour to come here, dialyze four hours, then have to go home. This at least cuts that travel time out for them.”

For the many patients who still need to attend the site, Jorgensen adds that a major part of the design is centred around making the new unit a place where everyone can feel as safe and comfortable as possible.

“Having a chronic disease is hard enough. They already feel sick, weak and tired. We want this to be bright and welcoming, with a little bit more room so they can make it their own space for the time they’re here.”

That emphasis on patient comfort is clear to Heggie, who quickly rattles off the highlights that jump out at him: the large windows that make the partially underground unit feel bright and warm, more comfortable treatment spaces, and TVs at each station that make it easier to pass the time. It’s even the smell of fresh paint that fosters the excitement that only comes from a new home or car.

That may not seem like much to anyone who hasn’t come to find a hemodialysis unit as their second home. For Heggie, however, these are the things that subtract the weight, little-by-little, of a disease that over time can make it hard to get out of bed in the morning.

“You get to a point where maybe you don’t have it in you to keep coming back. It crosses every one of our minds,” says Heggie, his somber tone reflecting what that would mean. “Anything that can make it more pleasurable or easier to be here … it’s so much appreciated.”