RIYADH: The total cost of treatment of 40 poor kidney patients will be met by Al-Rajhi Bank following an agreement signed by the bank with Prince Abdul Aziz bin Salman, chief of the Prince Fahd bin Salman Charity Association for Renal Failure Patients Care.
The support will be in the form of a package and will be available to both poor Saudis and non-Saudis. It will also include the cost of diagnoses, dialyses, medicines and transportation.
Prince Abdul Aziz and Abdullah Sulaiman Al-Rajhi, Al-Rajhi Bank’s chief executive officer, signed the agreement in Riyadh on Monday night.
“The facility for treatment and dialysis will be open to Saudis and non-Saudis alike. The Al-Rajhis have shown their generosity by supporting this noble cause during Ramadan,” said Prince Abdul Aziz at a press conference.
This tie-up between the Prince Fahd charity and Al-Rajhi Bank is significant as there are over 9,700 kidney-failure patients in the Kingdom who receive treatment at over 175 health centers equipped with 2,818 dialysis machines.
Besides organizations like the Prince Fahd charity, the Saudi government helps needy patients and donors, and has announced incentives for live donors who will get SR50,000 in cash, the King Abdul Aziz Third Degree Medal of Appreciation and life-long discounted tickets on Saudi Arabian Airlines.
“We are glad to tie-up with a humanitarian organization, which is being promoted by Prince Abdul Aziz. This partnership will greatly help in assisting needy renal-failure patients by supplying them equipment, medicines and other medical supplies, while encouraging and supporting scientific research,” said Abdullah Sulaiman Al-Rajhi. He added that the bank also maintains accounts in which people can deposit funds to support the charity.
“The rate of renal-failure patients is increasing at about nine percent per year,” said Talal M. Al-Aani, executive director of the Prince Fahd charity. “Many people think that if their kidneys fail, they will die immediately, but this is not the case,” said Al-Aani, adding that how long one can live with chronic kidney failure (CKD) depends on one’s age and other health problems.
He pointed out that some people with early CKD never have kidney failure, while others reach kidney failure and live for decades with dialysis or kidney transplants.
“People can even get transplants before having dialysis, especially if they have a willing living donor,” said the charity’s executive director.
He said that the most common symptoms of kidney disease include changes in urination, fatigue, skin rash, itching, metallic taste in mouth, ammonia breath, nausea, shortness of breath, feeling cold, dizziness, leg pain and swelling in one’s legs, ankles, feet, face and/or hands.
