Diabetes patient left in limbo when water cut to Mangere properties

Rosilene Thomas has lost confidence in using her machine at home. Photo / Jason Oxenham

Scary time for woman using her home kidney dialysis machine

Diabetes patient Rosilene Thomas has lost confidence in using a kidney dialysis machine after her home was one of about 300 Mangere properties to lose its water supply.

She was midway through her five-hour treatment on Friday afternoon when her husband Glenn noticed while washing dishes that the water pressure was easing and called out to her to shut down her machine.

"When I looked at my machine, all my blood from my body was out on the machine getting filtered," Mrs Thomas told the Herald before heading to Middlemore Hospital yesterday to ensure she was in safe hands for her next tri-weekly treatment session.

"I freaked out and acted fast because I almost lost my life when Watercare shut the water main without any notice," she said.

"When my husband advised again that there is no more water I was fortunate that I was able to return all my blood back into my body.

"I quickly removed the needles from my arm and came off the machine."

Fiji-born Mrs Thomas said she was furious at losing her water supply given that Watercare was well aware she needed it for her treatment.

Although she had been trained for seven weeks in how to operate her dialysis machine before starting to treat herself at home about a year ago, she said she had lost confidence in the process and wanted it done in hospital until she could be assured of fool-safe back-up systems for both water and electricity supplies.

But although Watercare contractors have spent several weeks digging up Kirkbride Rd outside the family's home for its $350 million Hunua 4 watermain installation project between Ardmore and central Auckland, the council-owned company indicated late yesterday that an accidental break in an older pipe may have been coincidental to that work.

And Counties Manukau District Health Board spokeswoman Lauren Young denied that Mrs Thomas would have been in any danger from losing the supply of water or even electricity to her machine.

"It's not life-threatening - it's just inconvenient - and if one of these things happen we recommend that people wash their blood back [into their bodies]," she said.

"There's only 200 millilitres [of blood] at any one time in the machine, in the circuit.

"If it's not possible to wash it back, it's actually not a big deal."

Ms Young, who emphasised she was commenting in general terms rather than about any particular patient in the absence of written permission from that person, said the biggest risk for people on home dialysis machines was a sudden loss of blood pressure.

She noted that Folole Muliaga, who died when electricity was cut to her home in 2006, was on a respiratory machine rather than dialysis at the time.

Gold Star Motel manager Tan Le said he had to rush to a supermarket for bottled water before reticulated supplies were fully restored by about 9pm on Friday, and some guests demanded refunds the next morning. He acknowledged Watercare brought in water tankers for temporary supplies, but said the first tanker ran dry in about half an hour.

Watercare spokeswoman Rachel Hughes said that although a water pipe broke "in the vicinity" of the Hunua 4 construction site about 1.30pm, she could not confirm any project contractor was to blame.

She said a temporary low-pressure supply was restored within three hours, and full supply within eight hours.

The company had a register of people undergoing home dialysis and sent representatives to visit Mrs Thomas, but they established she did not require medical assistance.