GRIQUET — A local senior is elated he no longer has to drive to Corner Brook from his Griquet home for dialysis.
Two weeks ago 80-year-old Roland Peyton, in need of dialysis in the wake of kidney failure, was told by the local hospital in St. Anthony, there was no room in the facility's dialysis unit and he would have to travel to Corner Brook's Western Regional Hospital twice a week to receive the life-saving treatment.
But the Charles S. Curtis Memorial Hospital in St. Anthony told his family last week a spot has opened for him and Peyton was set to begin his treatment today.
"I'm some happy about this," said Peyton, who couldn't speak to the press two weeks ago when the story first broke, but Monday sounded energetic and elated. "I couldn't understand why I had to drive all the way down there, I didn't want to do that."
The reason was never really disclosed by the hospital, and representatives were unavailable Monday to return phone calls. In a statement it alluded to a wait list and said the unit is now operating at full capacity, utilizing all staffing and resources that are currently available.
Peyton suffered complications back in June when one of his kidneys had shut down and the other began operating at a lowered capacity. He was taken into St. John's and upon his release required dialysis twice weekly. The local hospital told him it could not accommodate Peyton and the family would have to drive him down Route 430 twice a week.
But that ends today, and the family couldn't be happier, according to Peyton's son, Darren Peyton.
"It's just 15 or 20 minutes away now, as opposed to six hours," said Peyton. "He's better now than he's been in awhile, he was sick off and on with whatever it does to him, but he's great now."
Peyton's daughter, Deann Wyatt, said her father feels a lot less stress.
"It's been a drastic change for him, he only found out that he had kidney failure back in June, and for him to have to deal with that, and then having to deal with that drive twice a week, it was almost too much for him," she said. "At one point he thought he'd have to move and he didn't want to do that, so we've been through a lot."
Wyatt said her father is of a much better in spirit now, and the family believes media coverage may have caused the hospital to admit her father to the dialysis unit.
