I strongly believe that for the past 40 years the members and friends of the American Association of Kidney Patients (AAKP) have been the Association’s greatest assets.  It is through your efforts and concern for kidney patients that our Association continues to thrive as an organization directed by patients for patients. I have served as a medical advisor to the National Association of Patients on Hemodialysis and Transplantation (NAPHT), now the American Association of Kidney Patients (AAKP), since 1971. Looking back over the last 40 years, this Association has done remarkable things for the kidney community. 

I had the great pleasure to work with NAPHT founders, Josephine Berman, Bill Blackton, June Crowley, Dennis Mitchell, Sam Orenstein and Natalia Petrianyk. These individuals recognized the need for an organization of patients to reach out and tell other patients they were not alone.  They sent newsletters on a mimeograph machine to dialysis units to let patients know they had rights, were entitled to an explanation of any proposed therapy and should be consulted on major decisions in their care.

AAKP helped many who faced the heartache of not being selected by the “Who Shall Live” committees that determined whether or not a kidney failure sufferer would gain access to dialysis treatments.  This was during the early years of dialysis where not enough resources were available for all the individuals who were in need. One of the Association’s chief goals was to get universal coverage for patients with End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD), so patients would not have to choose between death from lack of access to a dialysis machine or bankruptcy for their families because they had to pay the high cost of dialysis treatment.

It was 1971, then AAKP Vice President Shep Glazer testified before the House Ways and Means Committee. He did it while attached to a dialysis machine. That moment meant so much to me and members of AAKP. That day Shep and AAKP put a face to who kidney patients are and put kidney disease in the national spot light. Shep asked members of the Committee to provide a comprehensive health insurance program to protect Americans incase of catastrophic illness. Two years later, President Richard Nixon signed the bill that created the Medicare End-Stage Renal Disease Program.

Having won that initial and critical battle we turned our attention to other important issues, such as the need to establish a national organization to preserve the visibility and influence of patients with Congress, and provide patient educational and supportive programs. AAKP has been engaged in these efforts ever since.  It is partly why we are known as “The Voice of Kidney Patients.”

Please join me in celebrating the 40 year anniversary of AAKP and all the wonderful accomplishments that have occurred on behalf of kidney patients. I ask you today to be a part of our efforts to bring current and future AAKP programs to more patients. Your generosity is needed to help us do even more in the coming years.  

P.S.  Donate $40 to commemorate 40 great years of serving kidney patients and receive an AAKP pill box (while supplies last).

Eli Friedman, MD
Medical Advisory Board, Chairman

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To donate via telephone, please call (800) 749-AAKP

 

All contributions to the American Association of Kidney Patients are tax-deductible to the full extent of the law.  The American Association of Kidney Patients has been granted tax exempt status by the Internal Revenue Service under section 501(c)3 of the IRS.