A woman who has late stage kidney disease has said she will die if she cannot find a place to live where she can undergo her treatment.
Diane Masterson (36) said she was too unwell to receive dialysis in a hospital and needs to have it at home. She has end stage kidney failure, with one organ having failed completely and the other functioning at 10 per cent of capacity.
“My consultants sent me to a vascular surgeon and the hospital form of dialysis is not suitable for me as I’m not well enough,” she says. “I have to do home dialysis which is called peritoneal dialysis. It is a gentler and milder form of dialysis.”
However, Ms Masterson’s attempts to find a two bedroom apartment suitable for her needs have foundered as the cheapest available in Dublin that she has found costs €2,670 a month.
The situation is urgent, she said, because her doctors told her two weeks ago that she needed to begin home dialysis within three weeks.
She is seeking an apartment where the water is not hard, with space to store dialysis equipment and a sterile bathroom and bedroom where she can go through the process. It needs to be within an easy commute of St James’s Hospital and Tallaght University Hospital, where she is currently receiving treatment.
Ms Masterson’s current living arrangements are not suitable to facilitate home dialysis, a fact which she claimed has been accepted by Dublin City Council, her social worker and medical team.
She said sick pay and welfare payments are not enough to cover the costs of a two-bedroom apartment. The estate agency for the apartment she has found will not let it to her because the payments would amount to more than two-thirds of her income. She said she would need a gross income of €135,000 a year to meet the letting threshold.
She has been registered as homeless with the Homeless Agency and has applied to Dublin City Council for €1,250 in Housing Assistance Payments (HAP), the maximum amount available, but the council said she was not eligible for the payment and the rent being sought is too high in any case. “They say I am over the income limit which I get, but these are not normal circumstances. I need these living arrangements for home dialysis,” she said
Ms Masterson said the cost of hospital dialysis is €50,000 a year. “Asking for €15,000 a year to get this over the line is not a huge ask,” she added.
She needs a kidney transplant, but is not well enough to have one at present as her blood pressure is too low to undergo such a procedure.
“I have begged every Minister to help. I have an appointment on Thursday. If I don’t have housing, they can give the appointment to somebody else,” she said. “What I am looking for is not a cure, but it is prolonging my life. Otherwise, my kidney will fail completely and I will die. I should not be wasting my energy on this.”
Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald and Labour Party leader Ivana Bacik have offered to represent her in any dealings with Dublin City Council, which has been contacted for comment.
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