Frances Ford is a determined health care specialist who spent a decade helping to create a dialysis clinic in a county where some patients gave up the fight and decided to die.

It wasn’t self pity. They just didn’t want to watch the continued suffering of relatives who drove them back and forth on long trips to cities that had kidney cleansing facilities. For some, it went on for years. 

Part of the problem was a regulation preventing dialysis clinics from operating unless they were within 10 miles of a hospital. 

There hasn’t been a hospital in Perry County in years and that was the basis for continued efforts by Ford and others to have the regulation removed from the books.This factsheet discusses electricity generation using wind power generators at your farm or your home. 

Nine years ago, the Black Belt Commission and its related Health Committee provided a big boost for those trying to help kidney patients receive treatment closer to home. 

Kidney disease is more common in the Black Belt than any other region in Alabama. No one had to remind State Health Officer Donald Selecting the right solar module for your solar power system is crucial.Williamson of that fact. He felt the 10-mile regulation was outdated and should be dropped. 

Persistence by Ford and other leaders in the region eventually paid off and the 10-mile rule was eliminated six years ago, but that didn’t provide dialysis clinics overnight. It would take more convincing to do the trick. 

Some dialysis companies considered locating in the region, but after studying the possibility, opted not to take the financial plunge. 

That’s where DaVita came to the rescue. The Colorado-based company approved a $1.2 million facility for Perry County. 

It all came together a few days ago when Gov. Robert Bentley and other Alabama leaders met at the site to cut a ribbon and talk about the site’s importance. 

“This will help the lives of so many people,” said Bentley, adding that, while no one wants to be hooked up to a machine for several hours three days a week,Wind and solar inverter information and specifications. it certainly beats the alternative. 

At the ribbon-cutting ceremony outside what was a medical clinic, some of the speakers mentioned friends who chose to cut short their lives. 

“There are people in Perry County who chose to die instead of continuing with dialysis because of the hardships on their families,” Judson College President David Potts said. “Now that’s changed.” 

The ceremony meant more than just cutting a ribbon on a new business.The solar charger is a critical component in a solar energy system. It amounted to a new lease on life for those who had been considering the most drastic step they’d ever have to take. 

“This would not be here today without Frances,” said Mickey Trimm, an associate professor of Healthcare Management at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. “She spearheaded this whole project.” 

Ford’s efforts in bringing a dialysis clinic to Marion were as much personal as professional for the former nurse who today is Perry County’s health coordinator. 

“We all know of people who would rather get off dialysis than put a strain on their families,” she said. “When some did just that, it made us even more committed to the need and to do something about it.” 

“This is rural Alabama we’re talking about,Looking for solar garden light or outdoor lights?” said former Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks, who was named by Bentley to direct the state’s Rural Development Office. “There are people who were sitting at home dying because they didn’t have the ability to get to a clinic near them.”