'If I don't get dialysis, I drop dead': Chilliwack dialysis patients cut off by flooding flown to care

Mitchell Dyck of Chilliwack knew the stakes right away once he found out he was cut off from Abbotsford by catastrophic flooding.

"Oh no, this ain't gonna be good," Dyck said his thinking went as he heard the news.

"This is definitely going to shorten my lifespan if I don't get there quick."

Dyck is a 22-year-old dialysis patient. On Wednesday afternoon, he was at the Chilliwack Airport with what he estimated were about 20 other dialysis patients awaiting an emergency flight.

Dyck said there is no dialysis unit in Chilliwack, which means they are forced to travel to Abbotsford for life-saving dialysis treatment, either at Abbotsford Community Dialysis Unit or Abbotsford Regional Hospital.

In his case, he makes the trip three days a week. That's not possible, he said, with calamitous floods closing Highway 1 and other routes.

As a result, Fraser Health co-ordinated flights and accommodation for "a small number" of residents, the health authority said, in order to ensure they could receive dialysis.

"Our priority is to ensure patients with chronic kidney disease who require access to hospital or community-based dialysis services are taken care of and their needs met during this time," a health authority spokesperson wrote in an email.

'It's very important'

Dialysis is a critical treatment for patients with chronic kidney disease and acute kidney injury. 

According to HeathllinkBC, it involves connecting the patient to a machine that removes waste from the blood, restores electrolyte balance in the blood and removes extra fluid from the body.

"It's very important," Dyck said.

"If I don't get it done, I build up lots of potassium, phosphates, sodium, and I start swelling up with lots of fluid and my body starts to shut down, basically."

Rob Irving, another dialysis patient, echoed that assessment.

"If I don't get dialysis, I drop dead," Irving said. "It's just a fact of life."

Irving said the flooding has exposed what he has argued for some time: that Chilliwack needs a dialysis unit within the community.

"Somebody should be doing something," he said, to establish a dialysis unit. There's a lot of time and cost involved in transporting patients from Chilliwack to Abbotsford. [The flooding] just adds to the problems."

'Anxiety and uncertainty'

Fraser Canyon Hospital director of clinical operations Catherine Wiebe was also at the airport Wednesday afternoon. 

"They're used to being able to get to their treatment in Abbotsford without difficulty," Wiebe said. "There's a lot of anxiety and uncertainty on their part."

She said it's a logistical challenge to move everybody, but multiple agencies, including Fraser Health, the B.C. Wildfire Service, and Health Emergency Management B.C. are involved.

"It's just a lot of co-ordination and making sure we don't miss anybody," she said.

Fraser Health said it has contingency plans in place in case there are disruptions to patient care.

"The extreme flooding that has occurred in British Columbia has meant serious consequences for a number of people throughout the province and in our Fraser Health communities," a spokesperson wrote in an email. "The health and safety of everyone in our region is a priority."