Dialysis in Steinbach thanks to strong advocacy from local man

Bob Barrow says the guy to thank for having a dialysis unit in Steinbach is his late friend Art Kornelson.

Barrow was at Bethesda Regional Health Centre Nov. 29 to celebrate one year of having the life saving service in the Southeast with CEO of Southern Health Jane Curtis, Bethesda Foundation Chair Chris Goertzen, city councillors, other top staff from the hospital, and his wife Myrna.

Barrow drove Kornelson three times a week to Seven Oaks Hospital in Winnipeg for dialysis.

“I drove him for three years and then he passed away (in 2020). And during my experience in Seven Oaks I found out that there’s a lot of people taking dialysis at Seven Oaks that are from the Southeast; and some of them had been moved to Winnipeg because they couldn’t afford to travel or they couldn’t find a driver to get them there,” said Barrow.

“So that’s when I started advocating for our own clinic.”

Everyone gathered by the doors leading to the new equipment and beds for up to 24 patients lauded Barrow for his relentless push to get this service for the community he joined 20 years ago to be closer to his daughter and grandson.

He did the work collecting the data, knocking on the doors of the mayor’s and Southern Health CEO’s office to make his case.

“I was in my early days as CEO but I remember those meetings. And I hadn’t even had a chance to look at the data, but when I looked at it I said no, no, this is valid. The data absolutely supports what you were saying.

“And when you have that: when you have the data and you have local advocates, that’s when the magic can happen,” said Curtis, who became CEO in 2017.

She pointed out how fast the unit was built considering the grand obstacle of health care and government bureaucracy.

“You don’t know how rare it is that we can be standing somewhere like this in a matter of six years. Often it takes much, much longer. You have something to be quite proud about,” added Curtis as Barrow again tried deflecting some of the praise, this time to his wife who he’s been with for nearly 59 years.

“I also had the help of my lovely wife Myrna,” responded Barrow.

Goertzen is himself an advocate for health care in his role with Bethesda Health, but in a prior life he was mayor of Steinbach. That is where he got to see Barrow’s tenacity in action.

“If you want someone who is tenacious, Bob is your man,” said Goertzen.

“As mayor I would get many people to see me for various things. But when Bob came to see me it was probably an important thing. And we talked numerous times about dialysis and the need for dialysis.

“And I told him, it’s so hard. We’ve tried to move it forward.

“He says ‘Don’t give up.’ And we didn’t give up, but he certainly didn’t give up.”

Barrow said he asked people to send letters to the Ministry of Health.

Soon, the province ponied up $4 million for a dialysis unit in Bethesda hospital. Its year of operation in the community health services unit happened while the $64-million expansion is being built.

Steinbach councillor Bill Hiebert did some math on how much having this service for just one year has already benefitted those who need it.

He said while at the local pizza joint Roccos, a man in a group overheard he was going to the dialysis unit to celebrate its one-year anniversary.

“One of them piped up, ‘Oh, I go there three times a week.’

“So that made me think, three times a week for a whole year: that’s over 150 trips that man is saving from having to go to Winnipeg. I can’t really put myself in those shoes, 150 trips a year,” said Coun. Hiebert.

He thanked the staff, whom the CEO also said overcame obstacles to make the dialysis unit a success.

“In a very difficult time, provincial staffing vacancies, this team has come together and made this service work and are now servicing a good majority of the people that need dialysis in this community and a little bit around this community,” said Curtis.

The area around this community is still benefiting from Barrow’s advocacy. He is the guy who helped push to get the eyesore of the telegraph wires down by the TransCanada, after a century of very few telegraphs.

“That really got me going on this,” said Barrow on seeking that feeling of making a difference for others.

Barrow also collects pop can tabs and monetary donations for children with wheelchairs, setting up bins at schools and businesses and getting 4.5 million tabs just last year.

His latest advocacy effort is to improve the pedestrian crossings on Brandt Street near the 7-11, and on Mina Street near Elmdale School in Steinbach.

“He’s just that kind of guy; he wants to help everybody out,” said Myrna.