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Arshia Ghaffari @arshia_ghaffari

Arshia Ghaffari is Associate Chief and Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Nephrology at the USC Keck School of Medicine. He is also the Director of Dialysis Services for USC/DaVita Kidney Center and Keck Medical Center. His interests include optimizing patient outcomes by creating models of care that promote and support a holistic and multidisciplinary approach for patients with kidney disease.

Competitors for the Disaster Nephrology Region

Team 1: Kidney Care in Natural Disasters

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Team 2: Kidney Care in Conflicts

Image generated by Evan Zeitler using DALLE-E 3, accessed via ChatGPT at http://chat.openai.com, February 2025. After using the tool to generate the image, Zeitler and the NephMadness Executive Team reviewed and take full responsibility for the final graphic image.

While we all face challenges every day, patients receiving dialysis are further burdened by the fact that life depends on being able to safely and effectively receive dialysis. Whether performed in their home or at a dialysis clinic, every dialysis patient knows that not receiving dialysis for any extended period can lead to complications and possibly their demise.

The recent Los Angeles (LA) wildfires affected so many of us who live in this densely populated urban area. Whether or not we were directly impacted by the fires, most of us felt the mental trauma by seeing the devastation in person or through our friends, family or media. The LA dialysis population was no different. Many lost their homes or were evacuated. Others were traumatized by the effect of the fire on their neighborhoods, support systems and caretakers. Issues with electricity, phone lines and unhealthy air pollution led to the temporary closure of some clinics. Yet patients had to remain resilient in their quest to receive their treatments and stay alive.

Thankfully the dialysis community responded admirably in its efforts to support patients affected by this natural disaster. Donation drives were created by the dialysis clinics to support the patients and staff impacted. Dialysis social workers went into hyperdrive to link patients with community resources. And certain patients were dialyzed at different centers until their primary dialysis clinic was able to be re-opened.

Patients receiving home dialysis were also impacted. Those who lost their homes or were displaced had to resort to finding a new “home” to do their dialysis. Some patients who performed peritoneal dialysis who normally relied on automated therapy had to switch to manual based therapy due to lack of electricity. For some, delivery of supplies was impacted. As a result, some PD clinics invited patients to come into the clinic to receive their peritoneal dialysis treatments. Other clinics provided emergency supplies for patients who were temporarily displaced or unable to receive their usual shipment of home dialysis supplies. And in certain cases, patients had to switch to backup hemodialysis until their housing situation stabilized.

I’m always humbled at how humankind is so caring, thoughtful, and giving in times of crisis and need. The dialysis community exemplified this by doing all that was necessary to keep patients safe and able to continue to dialyze. This is despite many within the dialysis care delivery teams themselves having been devastatingly affected by the fires.

– Guest Post written by Arshia Ghaffari

As with all content on the AJKD Blog, the opinions expressed are those of the author of each post and are not necessarily shared or endorsed by the AJKD Blog, AJKD, the National Kidney Foundation, Elsevier, or any other entity unless explicitly stated.

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