Abuja, Nigeria — Halima Galadima wheels herself into the Dialysis Unit of Garki Hospital with the support of her teenage daughter on September 11. She is too weak to walk as she is overwhelmed by dizziness.

In preparation for the day’s dialysis session, she came for some tests, including her packed cell volume (PCV) and to take injections. Being an End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) patient, she needs to undergo a renal replacement therapy.

ESRD, otherwise known as kidney failure, is the last stage of chronic kidney disease. When the kidneys fail, it means they have stopped working well enough for patients to survive without dialysis or a kidney transplant.

Halima, who has not done kidney transplant because of her poor financial condition, takes hemodialysis three times a week as her only lifeline. Since she was diagnosed in October 2017, she has undergone about 45 sessions of dialysis.

“Without a renal transplant, ESRD patients do dialysis for the rest of their lives to stay alive,” said Aderemi Adelaja, a consultant nephrologist who works at Garki hospital. “And 36 sessions of dialysis will establish an individual who has kidney failure as an end-stage renal disease patient.”

Halima is a National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) beneficiary. Her health insurance scheme covered six out of 45 sessions of her dialysis procedure, excluding the injections and drugs she had taken since the inception of the disease.

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/how-meagre-support-from-nhis-jeopardises-health-of-kidney-failure-patients/