June 17, 2005

As a clinic manager of a dialysis unit, I am excited about what I have
read on this web-site. I see patients everyday whos' lives have been
totaly disrupted by ESRD. They lose their jobs, they incur large medical
expenses, thier health deteriorates and the quality of their lives are
decreased. As a patient advocate I am in support of finding an end to ESRD
for the benefit of my patients!!!!( Not to mention all the money it will
save) I would love to find a way to end the suffering of my patients and
give them back what they have lost....even if it meant the end of my
career as a dialysis nurse. Keep fighting for the CURE to ESRD !!!!!!


Amy Johnson
Eden, NC

June 9, 2005

I'm 22, and a college student. I'm also a dialysis patient. I'm
currently wating for a transplant. If a way was found to grow new
kidneys, even if it meant an experimental procedure, I'd be happy to
volunteer.

If you are a congressman, or politician, please don't impede this
research. Many people that I know at the unit I go to are in desperate
need of help, and unfortunately, many of them won't get transplants. For
them, dialysis or death are the only options they have. Any advanced in
treatment or cures for kidney failure would help hundreds, probably
thousands of people.

Beth Hanson
Aberdeen, SD

April 3, 2005

I'm a kidney patient of many years. I'm so thrilled to have logged onto RenalWEB & found this new link! I've been praying for a cure for ESRD for many years! This is great. We need this! Keep it up!

Maggie Randall
Omaha

March 13, 2005

Like Gary Peterson musing from Marlboro, I sit from my own little perch reminiscing as a former caregiver of a dialysis victim. Having witnessed, for over 12 years the administration of the ESRD program by Congress I saw the wasted dollars, from a nine-dollar Tylenol to the absurd profits gained through a renal wonder drug that changed the face of this disease. I saw the thousands of Medicare mailings stating, "This is not a Bill!" Guess what? These are bills! These are bills that you and I pay in the form of U. S. state and federal taxes.

Currently Medicare outlays over 17 Billion dollars a year and growing (Add another $9 billion in non-Medicare spending.) for ESRD program. 17 Billion dollars a year to not unimportant drug and dialysis companies. These dollars save over 300,000 people a year from a possible ugly death. That might not sound socially expectable. . But then again, what type of a government program, pays a drug company, and then limits the Hematocrit of a person's blood to 36. Should it be acceptable to feed the lucrative patchwork drugs?

The ESRD voting block is small, yet it consumes 5- 8% of the Medicare budget for 1% of the Medicare population. There were over 30 ESRD bills in the last Congress - one passed. A challenge such as this, at the very least, would bring about national attention to this population.

An arduous task? A worthy goal? Yes, but this will be an uphill battle and it must begin somewhere. The lobbyists will be out in full force. Is it moral to have a society pay enormous amounts for a "disease maintenance" and not a cure? Let us begin by offering this challenge to solve an ever-growing chronic disease.

John Francis Wissler, author-Poignant Moments...A Caregiver's Perspective (on ESRD)