Description of ‘dialysis treatment’ in earthquake victims: “Lifetime rate of dialysis patients is very, very low”
While the earthquakes in Kahramanmaraş wreaked havoc in 10 provinces, experts state that the patients received dialysis treatment because many injured civilians suffered from crush syndrome, which is expressed as crushing syndrome. President of the Turkish Kidney Foundation Timur Erk and TBV Ahmet Ermiş Dialysis Center Chief Physician, Nephrology Specialist Dr. Bilal Görçin also provided information on the problems experienced by earthquake victims and their treatments as a result of World Kidney Day. On the other hand, the ‘Earthquake Education Film’ made by the foundation explained how sick people should behave during an earthquake. Brochures with nutrition and additional measures that benefit chronic kidney patients in calamities and Prof. Dr. Attention was drawn to the importance of applying the information in the 29-page booklet ‘Earthquakes and dialysis patients’, signed by Mehmet Şükrü Sever.
“Mobile dialysis unit against Istanbul earthquake”
On the occasion of the World Kidney Day, Timur Erk, President of the Turkish Kidney Foundation, spoke about the work being carried out in the earthquake zone as follows:
“We have decided to build a 10-unit prefabricated ground floor dialysis center in the yard of Sütçü İmam University in Kahramanmaraş, we have financed it, we are building a kindergarten with 8 classrooms in Hatay Antakya. We have 300 patients in Ahmet Ermiş Dialysis Center and it was necessary to come up with a solution for them. We have also taken the steps of a mobile dialysis unit in a container of 6 units to take to the nearest place in case of emergency, and a center that we can start operating within 24 hours if necessary. We have taken our measures for the possible earthquake in Istanbul. We will be able to deploy this center anywhere in Istanbul or Marmara within 24 hours. Dialysis services are also provided to 63 thousand citizens in our country. 95% hemodialysis and 5% peritoneal dialysis. We said that after the earthquake we made a film about what precautions should be taken in dialysis centers, how to protect patients from earthquakes. In this video we draw attention to a number of special matters; we are trying to teach some precautions about what the patient should do while connected to the device. There are about 8 thousand dialysis patients in the provinces and districts in the earthquake zone. Since it was not possible for about a thousand of them to continue dialysis in their own centers, they continued dialysis, especially in strong centers in Adana and Diyarbakır”.
“Even crushing for 4 hours is considered kidney failure”
Making assessments of kidney problems due to crushing, Turkish Kidney Foundation Ahmet Ermiş Chief physician of the dialysis center and specialist in nephrology. Bilal Görçin said: “Some dialysis centers were destroyed, other dialysis centers took their patients. We were not much affected by the need for dialysis in the earthquake zone. It used to be called kidney failure due to crushing syndrome for 2-3 days, now even 4 hours of crushing is believed to cause kidney failure. We have seen and experienced these cases. Harmful substances emanating from the suppressed muscle mass directly damage the kidneys and, as a result, kidney failure requiring dialysis occurs. One of the main substances coming out of the muscle is potassium, which causes the death of many of the patients. While we normally dialyze regularly 3 days a week, we have to dialyze 2 times in the same day for patients with crush syndrome coming out of an earthquake due to high potassium levels. Our second issue is renal failure after crushing in these patients. The information received is that more than a thousand patients were diagnosed with acute renal failure, crush syndrome and required dialysis during the earthquake in Kahramanmaraş. We’re all working on that,” he says.
“90-95 percent of them can go back to normal life”
Continuing his words, Dr. Bilal Görçin said: “Nearly a thousand patients received dialysis treatment due to kidney failure due to crushing. The beauty of this is that they have acute renal failure and these patients recover because their kidneys are healthy. Continuous, lifelong dialysis patients are very, very low, at 1%, 90-95% of them can go back to normal life. Patients requiring dialysis are removed within the first week and 10 days, and it peaks on those days. This number does not increase around a thousand, but gradually decreases. Most heal within days, some within 1-2 weeks, some within 3 weeks. They have no permanent dialysis load. Our biggest problem is; As for interventions at the time of falling in love, especially after the 24 hours have passed, if possible, a way to water them should be found if the rescue needs to be extended. One of the things we want and don’t want is juice support.”