More than half the dialysis patients on St. Thomas pleaded with Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. for more than $600,000 in promised funding vital to their health, in a letter released Monday.
The 47 kidney patients at Roy Lester Schneider Medical Center said Bryan promised $1 million from 2021 federal American Rescue Plan Act grants for the Virgin Islands Health Care Fund. Roughly $400,000 had been allocated to kidney dialysis services, they said in the April 21 letter. The rest was sorely needed to purchase machines and other equipment necessary to complete the dialysis center at the Sunny Isles Annex on St Croix and shore up services at the Dialysis Clinic Incorporated that services the whole USVI, including St Thomas, St John, and Water Island.
Adding to the urgency are predictions of an active hurricane season.
When the 2017 hurricanes hit, dialysis patients had to flee — first to Puerto Rico, then the mainland. Some never returned, said Walter Rohloff, a doctor with The Kidney Disease Support Group of St. Thomas, St. John, and Water Island.
Establishing a fully functional facility in the territory associated with the Tennessee-based non-profit Dialysis Clinic Inc., would give Virgin Islanders access to mainland services, Rohloff said.
“The importance of opening the center before the hurricanes impact us cannot be overstated since the opening will connect us with over 300 mainland dialysis centers which will stand ready to receive our patients if this should be necessary again. The St. Croix location can furthermore serve as the USVI hub for home dialysis services, which could greatly improve dialysis care for patients living on St John and Water Island, in addition to St Thomas and St Croix,” he said.
Requests for comment from Government House were not immediately returned but the call for help from nephrology experts is not new.
In April 2023, the Virgin Islands Health Care Fund said it wouldn’t be able to get its facilities online in time for that hurricane season without an influx of cash. They also worried the temporary portable trailers at the Juan F. Luis Hospital would not hold up under mild storm conditions.
By July 2023, kidney care experts were at the Legislature pleading for funding, estimating the Virgin Islands had 250 people in need of life-saving dialysis.
The kidneys filter impurities from blood. When they stop working correctly, a dialysis machine slowly removes the blood, filters out impurities, and pumps the cleansed blood back into the body. Without this treatment, an agonizing death is all but assured, experts said.
Rohloff said he was reaching out to more dialysis patients in the territory to collect additional signatures for the letter to Bryan.
“Several patients have also expressed their wish to meet with you in person to explain why the promise of the VIHCF/DCI operation on St Croix is of great importance to them,” he said.
