FINDING A WAY, WITH SO MUCH AT STAKE For a young patient facing kidney failure and systemic roadblocks in every direction, the odds were stacked against her.
By all appearances, she was a healthy teenager when she came to OneWorld for a health care appointment. But lab work revealed an urgent medical condition – one that would become complicated to treat because of systemic barriers standing between the patient and the care she needed to survive. The patient, not named here, received orders for blood work after a OneWorld clinician grew concerned over her high blood pressure during the initial visit. The blood work showed that the patient’s kidneys were functioning at less than 10%, with the chance that her kidneys would completely fail within the next year. Her best option was a transplant, but the odds were not in her favor. “One of the big problems we face with organ failure is that the road to transplant is very long and it basically doesn’t exist if you don’t have status in this country,” said OneWorld Family Medicine Physician Melanie Menning, MD, MPH. “And so, knowing the initial reason the patient presented, we were aware of very large barriers that were going to be in place – but also knowing her kidneys were likely to fail completely within the next year or two.”
Knowing the average wait time for a nephrology visit is 9-12 months, Dr. Menning reached out to a colleague who is a nephrologist at University of Nebraska Medical Center, Ryan Mullane, DO. According to Dr. Menning, Dr. Mullane “moved mountains” to help the patient, even knowing she had no insurance, financial assistance or other important supports. He agreed to see her right away and begin treatment. Meanwhile, at OneWorld, Dr. Menning and the social services team sat down to discuss likely barriers and possible solutions. First up: identifying strategies that would keep her in school and able to graduate on time, despite the need for hours of medical treatment. The OneWorld team and Dr. Mullane also
needed to help her and her mom fully understand the situation – often with the support of interpreters – to make sure everyone was involved in and understood the plan.
Melanie Menning, MD, MPH Family Medicine Physician
6
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online