Far North: Dialysis patients to benefit from arteriovenous fistula treatment
By Shanta Sih
Dialysis patients in the Far North region who were in the habit of covering long distances in search of better hemodialysis care, can now undergo the anteriovenous fistula process which according to Doctor Marcus Fokou a vascular surgeon and kidney transplant specialist, is an operation to connect the vein with an artery for dialysis which helps the patient become much stronger and healthier especially elderly persons with kidney disease.
Doctor Marcus Fokou says it took so many years for him and other team members to be able to train other medical personnel to be able to carry out this new kind of medical procedure .
“Before this new treatment came, I used to feel extremely uncomfortable and bad especially since I am getting older. I have been living with kidney disease for more than 8 years today and most of us patients only did the normal routine of dialysis. Now I feel so much better after going through this new procedure. We used to really travel long distances to Yaounde when we heard the new procedure was being done there but now with experts like Doctor Marcus, we have hope,” Sunday, a patient says.
This new treatment procedure is being done at the Maroua Regional hospital in collaboration with Yaounde General hospital.
“Most of the patients were obliged to stay back for lack of money to go to Yaounde. I will like to thank the General Manager of the Yaounde General hospital for accepting to partner with us in this new journey so that together we can save lives and I can now boldly say that, our kidney patients should worry less and as time goes on, we the medical experts will keep carrying out research to discover much more better treatments in the future,” Doctor Gerard Fetse Tama director of the Maroua Regional Hospital declared.
“Sometimes we feel like we may just wake up one morning and die for lack of finances to treat ourselves. I for one am really feeling relieved after learning about this new procedure and I cannot wait to try it,” Anna Numbusi another patient says.
The Director concludes by saying, the main objective of of the Maroua Regional hospital has been to provide quality health care to patients through technological advancements and encourages all kidney patients to undergo this procedure.
