Service combines rehab and daily dialysis to help seniors get on with life

As one of the first geriatric rehabilitation patients to be discharged from Toronto Rehabilitation Institute's innovative new dialysis service, which provides daily rehab and daily dialysis, Jim Duke, 72, is once again on his own, living independently in Toronto.

Duke's goal was to return as closely as possible to the life he left behind nearly a year earlier. " I have always been independent," says Duke. Christina Kwan, a physiotherapist at Toronto Rehab, was part of the clinical team that worked with Duke to help him find the way home. "Dialysis patients might need a little more help to get there, but their goals are comparable to other geriatric patients and, most importantly, their goals are attainable," says Kwan. What separates this group from other geriatric rehab patients is the need to treat a host of complicating factors such as mobility and quality of life issues, hypertension, diabetes and high blood pressure.

Duke's occupational therapist, Paula Ellis, agrees. "I worked with Mr. Duke until his discharge to help him attain his goals," says Ellis. "He had the same goals as many other patients - he wanted to resume living." Duke started his rehab in a wheelchair, progressed to a walker and can now walk indoors unassisted.