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🇻🇪 Venezuela /Health & Science

Lara kidney patients demand dialysis guarantees amid facility decay

From El Nacional · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

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  • Patients with kidney failure in Lara, Venezuela, are demanding regular hemodialysis treatments.
  • They cite deteriorating facility conditions, including a broken air conditioning system, and a lack of funds for repairs.
  • Similar issues at another hospital are limiting dialysis machine availability, forcing patients to receive only one treatment per week.

Patients at the Pastor Oropeza Hospital's dialysis unit in Barquisimeto, Lara state, are demanding consistent hemodialysis therapy. Their families have also highlighted the poor state of the hospital's facilities.

Anaís Vargas, a patient representative, reported that a broken air conditioning system has disrupted the room's temperature control. Hospital officials cited a lack of financial resources as the reason for the immediate inability to repair the damaged equipment.

A similar situation is affecting care at the Antonio María Pineda University Hospital. Ongoing renovations in the hemodialysis area are reducing the number of available slots for patients seeking specialized treatment. This scarcity of functional machines forces medical staff to ration services, resulting in affected individuals receiving only one blood filtration session weekly.

the breakdown in the turbines of the air conditioning system has paralyzed the thermal comfort of the room.

— Anaís Vargaspatient representative, explaining the impact of the broken air conditioning system
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by El Nacional in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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