Lachine Hospital opens its new $3.9-million dialysis centre
72-year-old resident recalls travelling to Pointe-Claire for treatment
Though it has been more than 12 years since Michael Schermann has needed the treatment, the 72-year-old Lachine resident has a special connection to the new dialysis unit inaugurated at the Lachine Hospital on Feb. 12.
Schermann was one of the last patients to receive dialysis at the Lachine Hospital before the unit was closed in 1996. Today, it’s hard for him to talk of his days on dialysis without his eyes welling with tears.
He received a kidney transplant in 1996, but when his new kidney failed in 2000, Schermann went back on dialysis. But this time he had to drive himself to the Lakeshore General Hospital in PointeClaire to receive the life-saving treatment that removed toxins from his blood. He made the trip three times a week for four years.
“It’s hard to travel when you don’t feel good,” said Schermann. “When your kidney fails, you poison yourself, and then your body reacts to that,” he explained. “You don’t feel good, you think you have a cold or something else wrong with you, you’re ready to throw up. The poison stays inside of you.”
Not having to drive to PointeClaire would have meant the world to Schermann, he said.
Quebec Health Minister Gaétan Barrette inaugurated the $3.9-million dialysis centre at Lachine Hospital Feb. 12. It will treat 90 patients suffering from kidney disease. The 15-chair dialysis unit is overseen by the McGill University Health Centre.
Though Schermann will not personally be using the dialysis unit since he received a new kidney in 2004, he smiled describing his feelings about the facility. “I’m very happy with what they did here. It’s a nice big room, 15 chairs. The people are nice,” he said, describing them as a “little community.”
He knows how important it is to have access to a facility close to home, especially for aging members of the community.
Schermann suffered unexpected kidney failure not long before Christmas in 1994.
“I didn’t feel good. I thought something was wrong with me,” he explained.
He went to a doctor and was diagnosed with kidney disease. Schermann describes the illness as driving down a dark tunnel where a door closes behind you. But it gets better, he explained. “You take care of your body, you live by the rules. ... Constantly watching what you eat and drink.”
Schermann is only allowed one litre of liquid per day.
The retired heavy equipment driver would have wanted a centre close to home when he was undergoing dialysis.
“That’s in the past. I can’t look in the past. I wish something happened but this is what life throws you ... and you’ve got to make the best of it. If you think about it, worry about it too much it doesn’t do you any good. I’m very happy to live.”