For 25 years, Elsie Savo has come into the Cairns Hospital three times a week, settled into an armchair, while a machine has done the vital work of her kidneys.
Her visits total an average of 3800 treatments and about 15,000 hours in the chair as the longest-standing dialysis patient of Cairns Hospital.
Staff surrounded the ‘matriarch’ of the dialysis unit and beloved patient recently to celebrate two major milestones – Elsie’s 75th birthday and her 25-year anniversary as a dialysis patient of Cairns Hospital.
‘She’s the matriarch of the unit so she gets the sea views,’ Nurse practitioner Anthony Lucas said. ‘She gets the same spot every time right by the window.’
Dialysis unit staff form strong connections with their patients.
Treatment for kidney disease is a long game, with patients presenting multiple times each week for an average of four hours, spanning years on end, resulting in strong connections formed between patients and the treating team.
‘Over such a long period of time we get to know all about each other, and families and kids being born,’ Anthony said. ‘We get to share all the good things and the bad - we’ve seen people get married and birthday parties - it’s like an extended family.’
The dialysis service footprint of Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service is huge, according to kidney transplant clinical nurse consultant Bronwyn Hayes, who has worked in the unit for 26 years.
She joins a number of the dialysis treating team, who describe themselves as the ‘OGs’ (original gang) of the Cairns Hospital, having joined Elsie and many other patients on their decades-long treatment journeys.
Among them is Dr Murty Mantha, who was initially the only Cairns Hospital nephrologist - a medical doctor specialising in kidney health - and now the Director of the department.
The health service cares for a huge 368 dialysis patients – 330 haemodialysis and 38 peritoneal patients – two thirds of those are First Nations patients.
‘There are eight haemodialysis units within Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service, which also provides support to a further four units in the Torres and Cape Hospital and Health Service,’ Bronwyn said.
Elsie, who worked as a nurse aid in Normanton before illness forced her retirement, said the love between her and her Cairns treating team was mutual.
The matriarch said the care she has received from the team of nurses and Dr Murty Mantha was ‘beautiful’.
‘We’ve got really good nurses here,’ she said. ‘They are very caring.’