Home Hemo Dialysis invention

My name is Yannick Napier and I have End Stage Renal Disease. I am blessed to be 33 years old even though due to a birth abnormality I was not supposed to live past the age of 7 years old. You see, I was born with a rare condition which formulated my urethra improperly. At birth, my urethra valves, which control the flow of urine from the kidneys to the bladder, we inverted. This condition led to a ton of missed schooling, countless trips to and from the hospital, and eventually chronic kidney disease. I was officially diagnosed with End Stage Renal Disease in 2005 and have been on dialysis treatments ever since.

Hemodialysis treatments act as a mechanical kidney and take the place of processing the bad toxins from your blood when a person’s kidneys are not working properly, or at all. The treatment runs as follows: a patient’s blood is removed, flowing in portions from their bodies over a certain period of time, interacting with dialysate (a concentrated liquid that helps clean the blood), thus flowing that clean blood back into the body. This treatment is life saving and is offered in a few ways; in center, home, and peritoneal dialysis. In center treatments are most commonly offered 2-3 days a week and at scheduled times during each day. Due to this schedule, patients are forced to follow a strict diet including watching how much liquid they intake daily and what foods they eat. These treatments are extremely aggressive and invasive on the patient’s body; leaving patient’s drained and feeling almost lifeless after each treatment.

An alternative to in center treatments is Home Hemodialysis treatments. Home Hemodialysis treatments are less invasive on the patient’s body and allow them to “get their life back”. Patients tend to feel more upbeat and more awake after home treatments and are free from the strictness of the in center schedule. Being a current Home Hemodialysis patient, I have tried all three treatment ways and found that Home Hemodialysis is the best fit for me.

While running Home Hemodialysis treatments for almost a year now, I believe I found a way to improve the cannulation process; the inserting of the needle to which the blood flows from and to the body. This small needle improvement has the potential to improve home treatments. This needle improvement gives patients options to obtain more freedom and overall a better quality of the hard life on dialysis. I have started this GoFundMe page with the hopes of gaining funding from you wonderful people who have the heart and means of bringing my needle improving idea to fruition. I am looking to receive a total of $  in order to make a prototype of my product, get a patent from a lawyer, and sell my idea to the medical industry and companies who are also in the process of giving dialysis patients a better quality of life on treatment.