-identified as Guyana’s longest known dialysis patient

DEFYING all odds and after enduring the hardest fight of his life, 54-year-old Colvin Luthers died on Thursday, 10 years after being diagnosed with end stage renal failure.

Following his death, doctors told his relatives that he was the longest known patient on dialysis in Guyana, according to his sister Nadine Luthers, a former journalist.

He was among the beneficiaries of the Government of Guyana’s $600,000 per year cash grant for dialysis treatment. As many as three dialysis sessions per week are mandatory for most patients.  

Shortly after he was diagnosed, Luthers spoke to this newspaper about the disease and how he was coping. At the time, he was undergoing dialysis treatment at Doobay Medical Centre, Annandale, East Coast Demerara. He had to pay $15,000 per session three times per week for the lifesaving dialysis treatment. Luthers, who was previously self-employed as the owner of a general electronics repair shop, said he could not work because of the disease.

He could no longer function as a normal person and was heavily dependent on family and friends to assist him with monetary contributions for his weekly dialysis treatment.

Additionally, he had reported that he had been suffering from renal failure, a condition that has weakened his health considerably, making him lose his concentration and good eyesight.

“Honestly, I am very thankful for the administration’s cash grant for kidney patients because it is helping… and I wish it was more permanent for people like me who cannot work and have to depend on others to pay for my dialysis treatment at the private institution,” he had said.

He had told the Guyana Chronicle previously that the cash grant of $600,000 would give him three-months’ worth of dialysis treatment, which also includes transportation and medications.

“I don’t want to sound ungrateful; I am not. In fact, I am very grateful for the gesture of this monetary grant, and it is being used as it should,” he had said.

Since 2020, the government has made dialysis treatment more accessible to dialysis patients across Guyana.

Some $360 million was allocated in the 2020 budget for the Ministry of Health’s Medical Treatment Department initiative to reduce the financial strain on patients who must use dialysis as an alternative to removing waste from the blood. And every year, that figure is increased to cater for more persons.

Currently, dialysis patients pay between $12,000-$15,000 per session and to maintain good health, they need at least three sessions per week.

In addition to those three sessions, they are required to purchase medication, eat a balanced diet as well as do a series of blood tests as often as needed.

Chronic kidney disease patients have long lamented the financial constraints they have to endure to stay alive and feel comfortable. Because of the lack of finances, some patients reduce their treatment to twice per week.

The government is presently seeking to add erythropoietin – one of the critical drugs in the treatment of kidney disease – to the list of medications offered in the public healthcare system.

According to the Johns Hopkins Medicine website, “End-stage renal failure, also known as end-stage renal disease (ESRD), is the final, permanent stage of chronic kidney disease, where kidney function has declined to the point that the kidneys can no longer function on their own.

A patient with end-stage renal failure must receive dialysis or kidney transplantation in order to survive for more than a few weeks.

Patients may experience a wide variety of symptoms as kidney failure progresses. These include fatigue, drowsiness, decrease in urination or inability to urinate, dry skin, itchy skin, headache, weight loss, nausea, bone pain, skin and nail changes and easy bruising.

Doctors can diagnose the disease with blood tests, urine tests, kidney ultrasound, kidney biopsy, and CT scan.

Some of the risk factors for developing chronic kidney disease—that could ultimately lead to end-stage renal failure—include diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, drug abuse, blockages in the urinary tract, family history, inflammation, and some genetic disorders.

Additionally, having chronic kidney disease and not properly managing it can cause the disease to progress to the point that it becomes end-stage.”