Renal Dialysis

Renal Dialysis is located on the main floor of Vernon Memorial Hospital. Renal Dialysis hours: 5:30 am - 4:00 pm

Renal dialysis is done six days a week, M-Sat.

Phone: 608 637-4376 The unit is a satellite of Lutheran Hospital, The nephrologist is from Lutheran Hospital.

The following article is from the May/June 2004 issue of the VMH Spotlight on Health:

Janet Stalsberg, RN, is Case Manager/Supervisor of the VMH Dialysis Unit.“Some people are so thankful...they are given the gift of life...every day,” says Janet Stalsberg, R.N., Dialysis Unit Supervisor, of her clients who receive kidney dialysis at Vernon Memorial Hospital. Currently fifteen patients spend from three to five hours a day, three times a week, having their blood cleaned by a dialysis machine because they do not have functional kidneys. Vernon Memorial Healthcare and Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center jointly administer the program, which will be six years old this year.

Two technicians and three registered nurses begin dialysis at 5:30 a.m. six days a week. Up to sixteen patients are seen, “mostly stable patients, with few complications”, says Stalsberg, but there is a waiting list of others. Once a month Dr. Chokchai Chareandee, a nephrologist from Gundersen Lutheran, sees the patients. Additionally, a dietitian and a social worker meet with clients to discuss diet, and other aspects of the life of a dialysis patient. “A lot of patient education is needed,” according to Stalsberg. Patients must monitor their intake of fluids, especially over the weekend. There are diet restrictions. Many foods are discouraged, because of their adverse effects on dialysis. The dialysis routine is exhausting to some patients.

Many conditions and diseases lead up to kidney (also called “renal”) dialysis. According to Stalsberg, it often begins with hypertension (high blood pressure) or diabetes triggering kidney disease. Some people are born with a kidney disorder or develop polycystic tumors, commonly called cysts. Kidney disease can also be inherited.

Once dialysis is deemed necessary, the patient typically spends a few months on dialysis at Gundersen Lutheran in La Crosse. Often, with the expectation of long-term dialysis (patients have lived for 20 years on dialysis) a surgeon creates a fistula - blood vessels tied together to create access for dialysis. Once stabilized, they can be transferred to the VMH dialysis unit.

The dialysis treatment itself involves two needles. One needle pulls the blood out and sends it to the dialysis machine to be cleaned (as the normal kidney would clean it). The other needle gives the same blood back to the patient after cleaning. The blood is actually bathed via friction that occurs as it passes through hairlike fibers in the dialyzer.
For a few fortunate patients, like Lee Breedlove and Jerry Dahlberg, kidney transplant is a possibility. The patient’s health must be stable and few complications, such as accompanying diseases, are allowed. Age restrictions also apply. Moreover, an exact match to a donor kidney is often the determining factor. Organ donors are always in short supply.

Two Vernon Memorial Healthcare-Gundersen Lutheran dialysis patients are celebrating life following successful kidney transplants.

Lee Breedlove of Cashton and Jerry Dahlberg of Purdy feel lucky to be alive thanks to successful transplant operations at UW-Madison in 2003.

Lee Breedlove, who will be 61 in July, left Rockford, Illinois to come back to this area for his health care after a cyst on his kidney was discovered. He is a patient of Dr. Rich Long, who practices at the Gundersen Lutheran-Viroqua Clinic. Breedlove was thankful he was able to receive kidney dialysis at Vernon Memorial Hospital while awaiting a kidney transplant. “It was handy being able to come here,” he said. Breedlove says he enjoyed the dialysis staff at VMH and praised their technical skills. “I didn’t feel like a pin cushion here,” he said. Breedlove still stops in and visits the dialysis staff even though it’s been over ten months since his kidney transplant operation.

Jerry Dahlberg, who received his kidney transplant 18 months ago, spent only a month on a transplant waiting list. Like Breedlove, Dahlberg also appreciated the ability to travel just ten miles rather than sixty to undergo dialysis treatment. Dahlberg said that while he didn’t care for the frequent dialysis treatments he had to undergo, “The staff at VMH made it a pleasure coming here. I still stop in and visit.”

Dahlberg’s primary care physician is Dr. Duane Koons, who practices at the Gundersen Lutheran-Viroqua Clinic. Dahlberg, who is a diabetic and remains on an insulin pump says he was able to cut down on some of his other medications following his transplant operation. Dahlberg says he feels very lucky to have been given a second chance at life.