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Molokai to get
dialysis center

The island's high number of
renal patients now go to Oahu
for treatment

Treatment won't begin yet

By Gary T. Kubota
Star-Bulletin

KAUNAKAKAI, Molokai -- Barbara Dudoit remembers the financial stress and suffering of her late husband Jules, who had to take three trips a week from Molokai to Oahu for dialysis treatment because of failing kidneys.

"When he gets out of dialysis, he gets pretty weak and gets dizzy, so he cannot travel himself," said Dudoit, who accompanied him on his trips."We had to go through all kinds of financial things. His money for retirement was all used up."

Ten years after organizing a community campaign, several Molokai residents, including Dudoit, will be celebrating their effort to establish the first dialysis center on the Friendly Isle.

A blessing is scheduled for 10 a.m. tomorrow at the Kamoi Center in Kaunakakai.

The center will be able to treat six patients at a time and serve an estimated 10 to 12 patients, including five who have moved off-island temporarily for treatment.

St. Francis Medical Center's Renal Institute will operate the center.

Molokai has the highest rate of kidney problems of any island in the state, according to a medical study conducted in 1994.

The rate of kidney problems, including kidney failure, was more than twice the Hawaii average on Molokai - 19 persons, compared to nine persons per 10,000 population statewide, the study said.

Judy Mikami, a former state health official who helped to bring dialysis treatment to Molokai, estimates about 15 dialysis patients from Molokai have died in the past 10 years.

About 75 to 80 percent of the dialysis patients are native Hawaiian, she said. Native Hawaiians comprise more than 60 percent of Molokai's 6,800 residents.

Dr. Emmett Aluli, who practices on the island, said medical officials know most patients and their families have a history of diabetes and heart problems.

Officials are still studying why the rate is so high. "We don't know why these numbers are so off-balance," Aluli said.

The state Office of Hawaiian Affairs has contributed $120,000 toward the $470,000 center; the St. Francis Foundation, $150,000, and St. Francis Medical Center, $200,000, hospital officials said.

Molokai Drugs Inc. also helped to establish the center, donating rent-free use of 1,600-square-feet of space at the Kamoi Center for 10 years, residents said.

Mikami said her family, which owns Molokai Drugs, wanted to show their appreciation to residents for being in business on the Friendly Isle for 65 years."We wanted to give back to the community in some way," she said.

Stacy Crivello, chairwoman of the dialysis community group, said she looks forward to patients receiving treatment and being able to live at home on Molokai.

Crivello's mother, Mae Helm --also the mother of singer George Helm, who died while trying to stop the bombing of Kahoolawe in the mid-1970s -- wanted to be on Molokai near family when she received dialysis treatment. But she had to move to Oahu to be near a dialysis center because travel was too strenuous. She died on Oahu about two years ago, at age 78.

Dudoit, whose husband died nine years ago at age 71, said, "We're so happy this thing finally came through. We have a lot of friends here, and I'm glad for them."

---

Treatment won’t begin
until staff is fully trained

Helen Altonn
Star-Bulletin

The opening of Molokai's new dialysis facility won't immediately follow tomorrow's blessing and dedication ceremony.

A number of things still must be done before patients can use the long-awaited facility, said Roberta Lovely, administrative director of St. Francis Medical Center's Renal Institute of the Pacific.

Training of three Molokai residents to staff the facility must be completed, and the facility must undergo a survey and certification by the U.S. Health and Human Services Department, she said.

"You can't just put up a sign and say we're open for business. You have to comply with all the rules and regulations and these are quite strenuous."

After staff members are trained in Honolulu, they will go to a dialysis unit on Maui to gain more experience, Lovely said.

"We want to be sure our staff are capable of taking care of patients and can respond to all the rules and regulations. We're being cautious because it's over on Molokai and we want to support it 100 percent."

Lovely said eight or nine patients -- either on Molokai or with relatives on other islands -- are waiting to use the new dialysis machines, funded by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.

Since the building is completed, she said, "We wanted to invite the community and everybody to see the place and have it blessed instead of it sitting empty, because we've looked forward to just getting it built.

"It's not going to be too long afterward that we will open."