Three times a week, Gary Ruggles of Covington has to come in for dialysis. It\u2019s a four-hour-and-15-minute procedure each time to have his blood pumped out, cleaned and returned to his body, something a normally functioning kidney does on its own.<\/p>\n
In the past, on top of that time, Ruggles spent time in traffic.<\/p>\n
\u201cI used to have to go to Renton,\u201d Ruggles said, adding that he also sometimes went to the Auburn facility, both places out of the way for him.<\/p>\n
But now, dialysis patients from the Kent Valley have a new, closer option, with the opening of the Kent Kidney Center on 74th Avenue, just south of Kent-Des Moines Road.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s pretty nice to have it here in the neighborhood,\u201d Ruggles said about halfway through a recent dialysis session. \u201cIt\u2019s so close to home.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was exactly for patients like Ruggles that the Northwest Kidney Centers decided to open its newest facility in Kent.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe decided to come to Kent because we knew there was a need here,\u201d said Joyce Jackson, president and CEO of Northwest Kidney Centers. \u201cMany of the Kent patients were being served in Renton and Auburn.\u201d<\/p>\n
The site was selected because of its accessibility from major roadways, Jackson said, and $2 million was spent to remake the building into a facility for dialysis, though Jackson said much of that was for \u201ca lot of intensive equipment.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the new facility has 17 stations, capable of treating 102 patients each week. The majority of stations are in the Community Dialysis Center and include a comfortable chair, a dialysis machine, and flatscreen television, as well as a laptop (donated by the Gates Foundation) to help pass the time during dialysis.<\/p>\n
But the facility also features a special-care section, for patients who are sicker or bedridden and require a higher level of nursing. It is the only section like it in the South Sound region, according to Northwest Kidney Centers officials. Besides the new Kent center, the closest facility offering special care is in downtown Seattle.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe now provide special care for the whole area,\u201d said Kent Kidney Center Manager Maggie Colin. \u201cWe\u2019re quite unique.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kidney dialysis was invented in Seattle in 1960 and Colin has been working with the machines since 1962.<\/p>\n
The kidney\u2019s main function is to help purify the blood by removing waste products and excreting them through urine. Jackson likens it to a washing machine for the body.<\/p>\n
When the kidney fails, toxin build-ups can lead to death. Dialysis allows those without functioning kidneys to clean the toxins from their body by passing it through a dialyzer – a scrubber of sorts – and then returning it to the body.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re replacing that function of an organ with a system outside the body,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cWithout dialysis, if you had kidney failure you would die.\u201d<\/p>\n
The new building also contains a new water-purification system to make sure the water used in dialysis is as clean as it can possibly be, cleaner even than drinking water.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure the water in Kent is very good, but it\u2019s not good enough for dialysis,\u201d said Jackson, adding the new purification system is \u201ccutting-edge.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though the facility is currently carrying a patient load of about 50 percent of capacity, Jackson said there is an \u201cepidemic\u201d of kidney disease in the country, noting there are presently about 500,000 people in the United States who need dialysis to stay alive.<\/p>\n
Jackson said kidney disease is often preventable and based on diet.<\/p>\n
Unlike some other facilities, Northwest Kidney Centers is also a nonprofit entity, meaning it relies on fundraisers and grants to stay open, though if they had it their way, there would be no need.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re committed to putting ourselves out of business,\u201d Jackson said.<\/p>\n
For now though, patients like Ruggles won\u2019t have to go nearly as far to get the lifesaving treatment they need.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just really nice to have it here,\u201d he said. \u201cI think it\u2019s going to be great for the community.\u201d<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Three times a week, Gary Ruggles of Covington has to come in for dialysis. It\u2019s a four-hour-and-15-minute procedure each time to have his blood pumped out, cleaned and returned to his body, something a normally functioning kidney does on its own. In the past, on top of that time, Ruggles spent time in traffic. \u201cI […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":223,"featured_media":12314,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12313"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/223"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12313"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=12313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}