Dialysis is a common medical treatment used on people who suffer from kidney failure. While it is not a cure, it is a life support treatment that is in constant use by those who have lost substantial kidney functions.

What Does Dialysis Do?

When a person has an illness that leaves his kidneys with little or no function, he cannot properly excrete such wastes that are usually discharged with urine. Sufferers of kidney failure, or renal failure, are often helped with the use of a dialysis machine to remove the excess fluid from the blood that should have developed into urine. Dialysis also removes some of the other toxic substances in the blood that are supposed to be removed by a fully functioning kidney, like urea and potassium.

Kinds of Dialysis

There are two main types of dialysis available to the person who suffers from kidney failure. One kind is hemodialysis, which cleanses the blood of these impurities as well as the excess water that the kidney is supposed to drain from the body.

Peritoneal dialysis is the second type of dialysis that cleanses the body of waste that should have been facilitated by a properly functioning kidney. Peritoneal dialysis is achieved through a tube that is inserted in the peritoneal area and leaves a sterile solution in the peritoneal cavity to absorb all the waste products and is drained out by a tube. This process is repeated a few times in one day to exact the same result as the hemodialysis routine. While a hemodialysis treatment has to be done in a clinic or a hospital designated for such a procedure, the patient or a member of the family who can help the patient can do peritoneal treatments at home. This saves the patient the time needed to go to a clinic to exact treatments.

Medisystems/Baxter Dialysis

With the case of Baxter and Medisystems, the Baxter Meridian Hemodialysis machine performs the blood cleansing duties of a hemodialysis treatment. While the hemodialysis treatment is supposed to help patients with renal failure extend their lives, certain tubing that was manufactured by Medisystems and used on the Baxter Meridian Hemodialysis machine has proved to be harmful. This tubing can either bend or knot up, causing blood cells be damaged. This can result in severe injuries, kidney failure, and even death.

The use of these tubes from Medisystems on the Baxter Meridian dialysis machines have been cited as the main cause of injuries and deaths among a few people who were being treated. A warning was issued concerning the usage of these machines, but no recalls of the units were done.

Medisystems/Baxter Dialysis Machines and the Law

In this light, if you or a loved one suffers or suffered as a result of this machine, you should get in touch with a reputable lawyer as soon as possible. To help you find out what you can do to get restitution for the pain and anguish that this oversight has caused, contacting a good lawyer that knows what needs to be done to see that justice be served should be your next move. These lawyers are your defense against these companies that have done you wrong. You should act quickly, since most medical cases have a statute of limitations that may render you and your loved ones helpless against exacting a proper amount of compensation from these corporations.

Contacting your lawyer now could very well be the best thing you could do for yourself and for your loved ones who have suffered and are suffering from the effects of this machine.