The Ballad of Billy The Kidney

Dialysis in the Australian outback - part 2

In a previous post, I discussed the situation of dialysis for the people of Central Australia - mostly indigenous peoples.

As it so happens, state boundaries happen to run through the middle of Australia, and this is causing one of those administrative-cum-financial muck-ups.

The South Australian Government is apparently refusing to contribute to the cost of dialysis in Alice Springs (in the Northern Territory) - so people who happen to live on the wrong side of the border but close to Alice Springs still have to travel or move many hours away to get treatment.

People who happen to live in the State of Western Australia have no such problem, with that Government contributing to the Alice Springs dialysis centre.

So now we have a situation in Australia where your quality of life is directly affected by where you happen to live - and just a few kilometres here or there makes a big difference.

In the ABC News article I noted two particular statements:

• The South Australian Government is commited to establishing dialysis units in the Outback Lands of that State, but "...it is in the early stages and no decision or funding commitment has been made."

• The Opposition parties in South Australia are pessimistic of the success of the plan, and "...declined to give a Liberal [Party] funding pledge to have patients treated in Alice Springs."

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• Deal reached on dialysis treatment, ABC [Australia] News, 23rd February 2010 - regarding the Western Australia deal for the Alice Springs centre

• Jano Gibson, "I'm crying": Dialysis patient forced interstate, ABC [Australia] News, 24th February 2010

• Natasha Robinson, Elder may die for lack of dialysis, The Australian [newspaper], 24th February 2010

• Dialysis treatment hope for APY Lands, ABC [Australia] News, 24th February 2010

Image credit:  NPY Womens' Council, reproduced by ABC News

Up next - the wearable artificial kidney

Recently I received an announcement concerning a wearable artificial kidney.

The device, weighing about 5kg and worn like a belt, is intended to provide continuous portable artificial dialysis.

Interesting!

• Picture credit: media release from Kidney Health Australia

• Media release from Kidney Health Australia

• Presentation from Xcorporeal Inc, manufacturers [PDF file] [HTML document]

Great Figures in Transplant / Non-transplant History > Stan Whippy Ritova

Stan Whippy Ritova, titled Ratu Viliame Ritova (1935-2009) was a noted  journalist in Australia and in his home nation of Fiji.

He stood for the welfare and rights of kidney patients in Fiji.

Paradoxically, the shortage of facilities in his home country was to eventually force him to move to Australia.  From this base he continued his journalistic career up to the time of his death.

His work eventually led to the eventual establishment of the first kidney dialysis centre in Fiji in 2008. (2008!)

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Obituaries in:

• Fiji Times Online
• Sydney Morning Herald

Anshoo Mala Chandra, New Dialysis Centre to Save Lives, Fiji Government Online Portal, 27th May 2008

Image credit: the image of Stan Whippy Ritova with the non-elected and self-appointed Prime Minister of Fiji, Commodore Voreqe (Frank) Bainimarama, is from the Fiji Government Online Portal of 27th May 2008

Location of the Fijian Islands via Google Maps

Postcard from Adelaide

We’re having a short vacation in the city of Adelaide, capital city of the Australian State of South Australia – 1320 km (820 miles) west of Wollongong.

This has given me cause to reflect on the very different (to the rest of Australia) system of organ donation in South Australia.

World Transplant Games 2009 > Day 7

Today I thought we might see how the World Transplant Games are being reported on in the Twitter-sphere.

I'm taking a thematic approach to this topic because I realise that its hard to get a continuous update of results in the way that you would get, say, a continuous update from the Olympic Games in the mainstream media.

Rather, Web 2.0 gives you the chance to pick your own results or follow your own interests.  And it also gives you a result to add your own perspective based on your own preference / interest / bias /whatever.

Twitter is a particularly good medium for this type of reporting because you can in theory blog in from a mobile phone (and not even via the internet on a 3G phone - you can blog in via text messaging).  This means that those using it can be very close to the action, and with immediacy (without having to find a computer).

Now let's see how this translates into action!

World Transplant Games 2009 > Day 5

As the World Transplant Games continue on the Gold Coast in the sunny State of Queensland, a quick surf of the WWW has revealed these highlights:

• John Paul O'Neill of Ireland has won a silver medal in the squash competition on Tuesday.
• In rowing, Bas van den Hoven of The Netherlands won a gold medal in the skiff competition, and Martijn Watervliet & Bas van den Hoven of The Netherlands won silver medals in the "double two".  (No I don't know what that means.) (Original Dutch language web page.)
• Damon Danieli of Team USA (the picture at the head of this post is from his blog) the 3rd highest time in his team for the 5 kilometre cycling time trial, but unfortunately did not qualify for a medal.

I have also uncovered some more Transplant Games blogs, and have added them to the list in yesterday's post.

Let the games begin!

Today sees the launch of the World Transplant Games on the Gold Coast, in the Australian State of Queensland.

The Games, held every 2 years since 1978, promote exercise and fitness as a means of managing organ transplantation.  A fit patient means a probable longer-lasting organ transplant.

Exercise is a key method of managing an organ transplant for the long haul.  Its not the only method, of cousre, but it is extremely important.

World and national Transplant Games represents an opportunity for transplantees to have a specific goal whilst managing their valuable and life-giving resource.

This blog is, alas, about 1,000 km away from the action of the World Transplant Games.  But we will try to keep our readers attuned as to what's happening up there on the sunny Gold Coast (especially with Team Ireland!).

The Games run to August 30.

This YouTube video of the 5 kilometre road race was uploaded by 15hoyukai

EMBEDCODE

• Image credit: The Alfred Transplant Family

Cead mile fealte!

The Ireland team arrives in Australia today for the World Transplant Games on the Gold Coast of Queensland!

Cead mile fealte, Éire!  (A hundred thousand welcomes to Ireland!)

The team even has its own very impressive website.

More on this event on Sunday (Opening Day of competition).

• Media release announcing team selection [Microsoft Word document]

• Image Credit: From the Transplant Team Ireland website.

Road trip!

I am on vacation for much of July, followed in short order by the headless-chook-ness of Week 1 of the news College term.

So this blog will also be on vacation until early August.

Thanks for reading so far - and I do hope that you'll come back!

• The picture of Mr Bean at Bondi Beach (Sydney) is from the news service Chinaview.cn

Great figures in Transplant / Non-Transplant history: James A Michener

James A Michener (1907-1997) was an American author who, in the words of Wikipedia,

...[wrote] more than 40 titles [ie books], the majority of which are novels of sweeping sagas, covering the lives of many generations in a particular geographic locale and incorporating historical facts into the story as well.

Michener travelled extensively, and his experiences are interwoven into his words.  Visit the Hawaiian Islands (other than Waikiki Beach) and you will get a glimpse of this.

Michener died in his 90th year following his decision to discontinue dislysis treatment. 

In the limited time I had to research this article I was unable to learn how long he had kidney troubles (whether this was an old-age condition or whether it had been present for longer) - if any reader happens to know (and can cite a reference) then the readers and the writer of this blog would be pleased to learn.

There is a huge amount of material on James  A Michener in the World Wide Web.  May I scratch the surface by suggesting the following:

• Academy of Achievement : biography of James A Michener
• University of Northern Colorado > James A Michener Library. : This is one of the campus libraries of the institutional successor to his old school, the Colorado State College of Education.
• The Michener Collection of the University of Northern Colorado : Built and extended upon Michener's first donations of his papers to his old school in 1978
• State Library of New South Wales [Australia] : listing of material by or about James A Michener
• The James A Michener Society
• The James A Michener Art Museum of Doylestown PA USA
• United States Postal Service issue of 59c James A Michener stamp in May 2008
• BrainyQuote : quotations by James A Michener. I particularly like this one:

Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries.

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• The picture at the top of this post is from the website of the Presedential Medal of Freedom.