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08 - A proned patient receives kidney dialysis.
Kidney failure requiring support with dialysis was relatively common in patients requiring admission to ICU during the first wave of the pandemic. It was associated with a much higher risk of dying and longer stays in ICU and hospital for those who survived. In this picture a proned patient is undergoing dialysis in which the machine in the foreground attempts to substitute for the patient's kidneys, purifying the blood of toxins, maintaining the body's salts and acids in balance and removing excess fluid from the patient.
At the peak of the first wave with only 5 dialysis machines in the Royal Gwent, the machines were having to be rotated between patients needing dialysis as opposed to the more usual continuous treatment that patients with kidney failure receive in ICU.
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