A long and winding road to recovery

By Lan Tian, Song Jing and Liang Qiwen (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-04-28 11:00

Tears trickled down Hu Ailing's wrinkled, dark face as Beijing health officials confiscated three dialysis machines. Leaning against the open gate of the courtyard where workers were loading them onto a truck, the devastated 54-year-old could only repeat: "The machines are our kidneys. They are taking away our kidneys."

April 2 was a black day for Anhui-born Hu and nine fellow uremia sufferers who rented the small, dusty yard in Baimiao village in the capital's eastern Tongzhou district. The group thought they had found a way to avoid the extortionate fees at public hospitals for kidney treatment by pooling their cash and buying the second-hand dialysis machines. They were wrong.

A long and winding road to recovery
A uremia sufferer, one of the 10 based in Baimiao village in Beijing's Tongzhou district, twists in pain. The group bought a dialysis machine and operate it manually to reduce their crippling medical expenses.[China Daily]

For four years, the four men and six women, who all have kidney failure, visited the courtyard at least once every three days to use the equipment, operating the machines manually, which helped to reduce their medical expenses by three quarters.

But on April 2, Tongzhou health bureau decided to confiscate the machines, deeming it an unlicensed medical practice.

Sitting in the shade in the courtyard, an emaciated Wei Qiang, 35, stared blankly through the dust motes as they danced in the sunlight. "I know it's illegal, but what else can we do?" he muttered.

A former fruit vendor from Wangzhuang village in Inner Mongolia, his nephritis developed into uremia 13 years ago, with his family spending 600,000 yuan ($88,000) on medical bills. In the end, he abandoned his young wife and aging parents in search of better and cheaper treatment.

He said kidney dialysis cost more than 500 yuan each time at the public hospital in his hometown, 50 percent of which could be paid for by the rural health insurance, but it only cost 80 yuan each time using their own machines.

Wu Ming, a professor at Peking University's school of public health, said: "Without permission from an authority, the medical practice has many safety risks. But it's understandable patients want to treat themselves at home due to the high medical expense."

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