Hello, my father is 92 suffering from renal failure . His specialist said his kidneys were at 4% when we saw him three weeks ago. He was admitted to hospital yesterday with pneumonia and has not been very good for a week or more. Difficulty sleeping, feeling very tired. I am away on holidays and am concerned that he has reached a time when he is dying. I need to know whether I should return to Sydney from the far north coast. I will phone the hospital today but throught a Nephrologist may be able to advise me. Regards Leigh
Hi, Thanks for writing in. Sorry to hear about your fathers' illness when you are away from him. The main criteria in this situation would first be the serum creatine and blood urea levels, if they have been stable for last 3 weeks or not. If they are unstable, he can go in for renal failure at any time (matter of weeks). The second point is how he is responding to pneumonia treatment. Has any particular pneumonia treatment medication further deteriorated his general health condition or not. You may discuss the above two points in particular keeping in mind his recovery from pneumonia with his present kidney function. Hope this helps.