The dialysis clinic had just opened in Guayaquil, Ecuador, when Juan Carlos was wheeled in, clinging to life, his body bloated. Juan’s mother, learning of the possibility of saving her son’s life, “sold everything they owned, sold the chickens for bus fare” to get Juan to the clinic for help, says Ginny Mello, executive director of Bridge of Life, which is a charitable arm of Davita, a dialysis provider in the US. Until that day, Juan had felt he didn’t want to go on living, didn’t want to burden his family with expensive dialysis treatment from a private hospital. Within days of receiving the dialysis that saved his life, Juan Carlos said that he now wants to be a doctor.
The nonprofit clinic in Ecuador was the first of several Bridge of Life to open in developing countries where kidney disease means certain death for those who cannot afford the expensive, ongoing treatment. Mello, who was a full-time Davita employee, and her husband, who is the company’s chief operating officer, founded Bridge of Life to share their knowledge and passion, to “take what we know that works here and transplant it to a place where it doesn’t exist” in developing countries, says Mello. Davita donates equipment, expertise and employee hours to get the clinics up and running, which takes about a year. Our kidneys filter excess water and waste from our blood and make urine. The two leading causes of kidney disease, diabetes and high blood pressure, can damage the blood vessels, causing kidneys to shut down. In developing countries, another risk factor for kidney disease is lack of knowledge, as a result of which poor people become very sick before seeking care. In addition, lack of understanding of the disease among medical professionals decreases the number of patients who are properly diagnosed and treated in its early stages. Instances of kidney disease are not well-tracked in developing countries, but are believed to be much higher than in the US, where millions are affected by it, according to The National Kidney Disease Education Program.
