Sue Visser
Case history of visits to 3 hospitals in South Africa, presenting with assumed kidney failure that would require dialysis: November 6-December 11, 2023
Background: After spending over three very costly weeks in hospital treating so-called chronic lifetime kidney failure, I can now urinate freely and have a normal regular bowel motion. There were no problems with breathing, cardio or blood sugar comorbidities. My pulse and BP have always been normal to good, so the onset of the kidney saga seems to be acute and multi-faceted. I would question the assumption that dialysis twice a week was necessary and especially the surgery for implanting a semi-permanent (Permacath) catheter port.
I am a healthy, sporting, and active senior who seldom if ever gets ill. As a health researcher, product developer and author of two books, I am no stranger to disease ethology so the connection to consuming a pesticide that may have been present in fruit peel and vomiting for two days may have upset the applecart. It hardly justifies the prognosis and invasive treatment I received on what ended up to be nearly a month’s nightmare, being shunted between three nearby hospitals. My health articles are published on highly respected academic platforms around the world (including EPSCO) and I write for the South African Medical Academic (CPD) website for the Integrative medicine section and some of them have received thousands of hits. Some doctors are interested in herbal and dietary interventions, natural alternatives to HRT and even the therapeutic effects of iodine, it seems.
My contributions to Townsend Letter date back as far as 2017 and are currently very popular in their new E-letter, and have reached among the top 3, according to the hits they have received. It is thus amazing for me as a patient who was rushed to the emergency unit of the private Tokai Melomed hospital to be told I needed dialysis twice a week. Nobody quietly sat down and spoke to me and Jim, my husband about exactly what the actual complaint and symptoms were. Instead, they said the kidney treatment would cost us a deposit of over R150 000.00 prior to admission. We are not on medical aid and usually rely on natural or holistic based treatments. However, the severe and continuous vomiting and especially the copious quantities of bile aroused our suspicion that there was something more serious going on.
The Biofeedback report from our holistic therapist (prior to hospital admission) indicated that the kidneys, thyroid, and heart were taking strain. She said the main issues were with the liver, gallbladder, and gastritis, the badly inflamed stomach. (Note this is a non-invasive vibrational scan, indicating problem areas. It is not an official diagnosis. It offers guidelines for holistic treatment and has always provided us with a very accurate prognosis.) The therapist was concerned and suggested that Jim take me to the experts at Melomed. But nobody wanted to hear all about the main reason – food poisoning.
This story is about my second stay in hospital. The first time was when I was born, 70 years ago.
I had a slight thyroid issue 20 years ago and weaned myself off Eltroxin. Recently, due to a stressful encounter concerning the herbal products we make, a dip in my thyroid and immune function set off another spell of mononucleosis. (Who was to know that according to further investigation, this would be linked to the pesticide/vomiting episode.)
I also suffer from a little anemia that is easily corrected with the homeopathic tissue salt FERRUM PHOS D6 after donating blood. I have blood type RHO D negative and am thus a universal donor. This blood type rarely clots but nobody wants to admit that one should first enquire, prior to shooting patients up with Warfarin (rat poison)—especially when they already consume ginger and other blood thinning herbs. I am not diabetic and am not a smoker or a heavy drinker so one wonders why I needed constant heart monitoring and endless blood tests when all the tests indicated nothing untoward. All three hospitals clearly demonstrated that they are clueless about balancing electrolytes. Groote Schuur hospital succeeded in infecting me with E coli, after they discovered that the catheter they inserted was bent, hence no urine. It was only when blood poured into the pee bag that they ripped it out. Painful, yes. Traumatic to the urinary system and another cause of urinary imbibition – yes, very. Meanwhile when back at Melomed after discharging myself from Groote Schuur there were other complications.
The whole episode started with food poisoning from a pesticide activating the latent mononucleosis virus in my body. The fact that I can freely urinate hardly justifies being pressured into having a permacath hanging below my neck with two tubes wrapped in gauze swinging around my boobs. I was told not to bath, shower, or swim or it would get wet…for 6 months. It is a long and expensive story, the tale of two kidneys and three hospitals.
At the Tokai Melomed Hospital emergency unit, the medical experts assumed I needed urgent and continuous kidney treatment (dialysis) at the quoted price of over R250 000.00 for the first few days. We are not on medical aid.
I was thus referred to Victoria Hospital, a government institution in Wynberg. It was a pleasant ward, well equipped and clean. They forced me to drink 1-2 liters of water a day, restricted my sodium intake severely, and gave me a horrid mixture to drink, said to be a drug to bind and reduce potassium. This made no sense as I had been doing extensive research on electrolyte balancing and I am familiar with the pitfalls involved when sodium levels get too low (hyponatremia) When this happens, all your magnesium flushes out and hence constipation becomes an obvious symptom of a drastic electrolyte imbalance. My article outlining the balance of the four minerals involved has been published as part 4 in the series on Food as Medicine for Townsend Letter.
All three of the hospitals failed to provide any gluten-free vegetarian food as requested when repeatedly asked about my food preferences. No oil, no butter. Only margarine, a source of toxic trans fatty acids, was ever on offer. Yuk! The food was very dry and unappetizing. No flavor, meat-free sauce or gravy, and especially no salt. Foods that are naturally rich in potassium were severely restricted. So the sodium to potassium balance was already out of whack from their erratic assumptions and guesswork. It was impossible to swallow anything on the average plate with a dry mouth, feeling nauseous from the line up of drugs, especially the proton pump inhibitors and suffering from vertigo. Nobody asked if I suffer from acid reflux or heartburn. I don’t, by the way, so why give me Nexus? All tea and porridge were over-sweetened with no alternative at the government hospitals. Also dished out was 25 mcg of Eltroxin for the thyroid and I will take it and then wean of gradually with Coleus Forskohlii, a herbal source of cyclic AMP.
Meanwhile during my iatrogenic odyssey, I began to suffer from ketosis due to a drastic loss of appetite that restricted my intake of any possible micronutrients I could glean from the morsels of foodless food. Melomed gave me the odd Greek salad without any dressing, but the olives and feta were a treat (Ha ha, salt!). So was the hardboiled egg accompanied by a few slices of tomato. But a male nurse passed by and exclaimed that I was not to eat any tomatoes or oranges. So away went the last morsel containing any natural vitamin C. As a result the skin on my arms and legs broke out in red rashes with little red pockets of blood around the hair follicles. Classic scurvy. This was rectified by the juice of half a lemon upon returning home.
Why do hospitals wake up all patients up at 4 am and force them to wash in a basin with a cloth soaked in harsh detergent? After a disturbed night with a TV flashing overhead throughout the night, you thus had be ready for the doctors’ inspection at 10 am. At Victoria Hospital in Wynberg, I was shouted at and humiliated by some of the nurses. It was a racial issue. Some of the other patients had heard that I used herbal medicine so they called me “pagati” behind my back. I understand a few black languages but did not let on that I knew they were calling me an evil white wizard.
After a few unbearable days, deprived of 8 hours sleep a night and nearing water saturation combined with food deprivation, I was to be transferred by ambulance to Groote Schuur hospital. Yet when I asked about when I was to depart, the staff on the morning shift knew nothing about the arrangements. I had to chase it up with one of the doctors doing the morning rounds. In the evening I shared a bumpy ride with two other passengers. It was good to meet one of my Radio 786 fans, an elderly Muslim gentleman who was delighted to come face to face with Sue Visser, after 10 years of Health Focus.
The Groote Schuur emergency ward was a nightmare, and I regret to report that their bathroom wall was covered in black mold/fungus. (Aspergillus is very toxic to the lungs.) The wash basin also had tell-tale signs of it around the mirror. Little plastic glasses lined up above the wash basin were used to dispense tablets to the patients. One of the medical staff had a drink of water from one and put it back. He then washed his hands copiously and dried them off with 3 meters of paper towel. I was cramped into the tiny ward, elbow to elbow between two black gentlemen, opposite a lineup of 5 other patients who were also squeezed into narrow cots with hard, padded planks and no cushions or other creature comforts. Most of the patients were on oxygen.
Oh, what a night. Nobody gave me any water despite continuous requests from important looking doctors and nurses who whisked past me. The ward was a lot better with a glorious view of Signal Hill and a panoramic sweep across Table Bay. Once again comfy beds with remote controls to play with and once again doctors and nurses forcing me to drink at least 1.5 liters of water a day.
I am not sure why I had to undergo 22 X-rays in a single session, surrounded by a group of eager beaver medical students. I joked that it had something to do with World Radiation Day. The radiation unit was festooned with flags and posters for the occasion. These students were also taken around the wards to interview patients as part of their training. One 3rd year student admitted to me that she did not understand electrolytes. She wasn’t the only one!
I thus discharged myself from this highly acclaimed internationally famous institution to avert further iatrogenic mischief. On departure from the Tokai Melomed Hospital after a few more days of intense dialysis via my semi-permanent catheter port, I finally received a diet sheet that stressed the necessity to restrict – yes, restrict water and fluid intake to less than 500 ml per day. This contradicts all previous instructions to frantically down a few liters a day for “thy kidneys sake.” Why did my weight jump from a lean 55 kg to 65 kg? It hasn’t budged, despite the dialysis, leaving me with a bloated belly, swollen ankles, and edematous legs.
After my husband brought me home, I noticed that urination had stopped – another reason to justify dialysis twice a week for the rest of my life? My skin was very itchy, as if I was allergic to something – yes, I was. Instinctively I took an antihistamine tablet from my first aid kit and started to investigate. The adverse effects of Nexus, the PPI, included a rare, but possible allergic reaction…..interesting. It caused an electrolyte imbalance. This resulted in the release of the antidiuretic hormone; it inhibits urination!
Another screw up. An hour later the urination returned to normal.
Before the next dialysis session two days later as an out patient, we asked to consult with the supervising nephrologist. I was determined to relate my whole case history to her as she had merely whisked past me during her morning rounds and waved aside any questions I wanted to ask. It was not easy to keep her attention and she was on the defensive. So I bashed on with my case history and told her to hear me out, to the point that I initially presented with gastritis, had been vomiting bile for 3 days and was severely dehydrated. Then I asked her how they could guarantee electrolyte balancing during the treatment. She couldn’t. That may explain why my weight remained at the 55 +10 kg that I am now saddled with.
Having just read the latest Townsend Letter, I was inspired by their article about kidney health. Their account of holistic treatment that spared a patient from dialysis was a real game changer. I insisted on having the permacath surgically removed (at an extra cost of R11 000.00). There was no point in paying over R8 000.00 per week for the rest of my life, when I can now pee like a racehorse and the dialysis was not reducing the excess weight. We could have bought a holiday home or paid for another luxury overseas cruise around the world with the money they raked in.
It was a very costly and expensive learning curve. Somehow it fits into a cosmic plan. At least I have gained empathy for people who are Ill, who suffer fatigue, aches and pains, especially after repeated visits to hospitals. I have suffered fools gladly and and now have some useful guidelines to assist my ongoing research.
In common with all these institutions was the total disregard for adequate and ergonomically appropriate toilet facilities. No squat pans or personal hand shower facilities in any of their toilets. The toilets themselves were all too high for shorter patients or children, making it difficult to defecate when on tippy toe. At least provide a separate foot stool? As for rest, peace and a decent 8 hours of sleep, forget it. All the photos bragging about the healing effects of silence in the posh foyer of the Tokai Melomed private hospital made a mockery of the word silence. So take along your earplugs and eye shades. But first read the disclaimer sign that is flaunted at the entrance. They take no responsibility for any risks or damage. This includes any act of negligence.
So I, too, take no responsibility for mentioning exactly what happened in any of the institutions mentioned in this report. It has been submitted to my client who requested a list of suitable hospitals to refer his patients to. I will continue to investigate. My experience will also be shared with medical academic institutions as a warning to practitioners who assume that once within a hospital, there is nothing to worry about. I hope this document will serve as an eye opener to all concerned.
Conclusion
I can now urinate freely and have a normal regular bowel motion. There are no problems with blood pressure, cholesterol, breathing, or blood sugar control. My pulse and BP have always been perfect, so it is mysterious. There is only a slight dip in thyroid function and a little anemia. I am not diabetic, I don’t drink more than glass of wine in the evening (not anymore, due to my palate being screwed up) and I am not a smoker. There are thus zero comorbidities so why all the panic about dialysis? The whole thing started with food poisoning from a pesticide activating the latent mononucleosis virus in my body. This caused the initial vomiting and gastritis, so now follows the holistic healing process with supplements galore, acupressure, lymph drainage, and gentle exercise. I will get back into my bikini! Meanwhile, I am off to South America, to Santiago to board a cruise to Tierra del Fuego tomorrow.
Best regards, Sue Visser
Resources
Where Are the Good Doctors? https://www.townsendletter.com/e-letter-21-pharmaceuticals-orthomolecular-treatment-informed-consent/
Creatinine levels temporarily increased by constant vomiting and dehydration. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/when-to-worry-about-creatinine-levels#symptoms
Release of antidiuretic hormone increases water reabsorption and retention and decreases the volume of urinary output. https://med.libretexts.org
What four hormones affect urine production? Antidiuretic Hormone, Aldosterone, Atrial Natriuretic Peptide,
Parathyroid Hormone & Calcitonin. Lesson Summary. 31 Jul 2022 https://study.com ›
Aldosterone is a hormone that helps regulate your blood pressure by managing the levels of sodium (salt) and potassium in your blood and impacting blood volume. Having too much or too little aldosterone in your body can cause health issues.12 Sept 2022 https://my.clevelandclinic.org › https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Environmental Factors That Affect Parathyroid Hormone https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Individual variations in drug response. https://townsendletter.us19.listmanage.com/track/click?u=1d9d9fd4d926c333347422e08&id=84e1db4dd1&e=f94210d4a5
The cause of mortality for most kidney patients is not kidney failure but secondary heart disease that develops over the course of many years. If patients take steps to minimize the impact of chronic kidney disease on the cardiovascular system, renal patients can avoid many of these common problems https://www.townsendletter.com/e-letter-23-406-nutrition-cardiac-and-kidney-health/
Published April 20, 2024
About the Author
Sue Visseris the health researcher and product developer for Nature Fresh Health Products. She has developed over 45 products, beginning with her unique Calcium Complex formulation in 1997. With over 25 years of experience in complementary and especially traditional medicine, Sue shares her articles freely with doctors (SA Medical Academic) and other publications. For many years, Sue has given free presentations, radio shows, workshops and has appeared in the two TV series on local herbs (Nature’s Health – 2007 and 2009). She is the author of two books and dozens of research papers and published articles.
Sue investigates current health trends, products and modalities on a constant basis and interacts with fellow South Africans at all levels to learn more about their health issues. Artemisia annua and other anti-malarial species, especially Olea Europa/Afra have now come to the fore as treatments for Covid-19. The new Nature Fresh prototypes are having very successful results with viral infections by using herbs that treat malaria. Contact: sue@naturefresh.co.za ; info@naturefresh.co.za