What Can We Do for Patients Besides Dialysis

Today I was depressed for I read news that ten people with Kidney Diseases organized a illegal team to take dialysis themselves, because they can not afford the cost of dialysis six hundred RMB per time in hospital. Although Chinese economy has developed a lot, the system of insurance in some places has not been perfect and many people must pay all their medical expenses. As a doctor, desiring to help those persons, I am only able to help some of them but I am destined to fail in helping all of them. The same goes some other countries, I think.
Wang Xinyang, a young man of 28 years old, is the initiator of this team. Ten years a go, when he would graduate from a police academy, he suffered from the End Stage Kidney Failure, which broke his health as well as his dream of being a policeman. There is nothing left but the only hope to survive, which may encourage him to organize this team and help more people like him.
His team located in countryside of Beijing. At the beginning, he take the fee of dialysis from other patients, but most of them like him did not have much money, so at last he almost offer free dialysis. At one time, this team composed 17 people and they must wait in line for dialysis some days. Nevertheless, Wang felt helpless and hopeless. In particular, the death of his good friend, Liu Fuzhong, nearly made him collapse. On that day, everyone was waiting for their turn to take dialysis. Liu just felt fatigue and squatted to have a rest, but when he tried to stand up, he died suddenly.
The death of his friend reminded him that this illegal team can not help him as well as other persons there. More attention from society may help them out of predicament. As their experience is disclosed, many people collected information for them to apply for the medical insurance and basic cost of living allowances. At last, some hospital even offered them free dialysis. Wang and his team member all went back home with a good medical insurance.
It is a good ending for Wang’s story, but it cannot raise my mood up for there are still many people urgent for treatments including dialysis. Our attention fails in covering each of them. The radical method is to find the effective treatments to cure or ease Kidney Diseases at least, which is the real responsibility and help of doctors like me.