For someone living with kidney failure, spending four hours at a kidney care center three times a week for dialysis becomes a part of life.

With the first Fresenius Kidney Care, located near the Dairy Queen on Highway 39 North, serving nearly 200 patients a day, the need for a second location became apparent to relieve some of the congestion. 

“It’s reduced a lot of the crowding at our first unit,” Bobby Clark, a nephrologist and the medical director of the new unit, said. “It’s not at all competitive, it’s all part of the same company. Maybe a little smaller and a little quieter.”

Dialysis helps patients suffering from kidney failure filter toxins from their bloodstream, a function the kidneys can no longer perform. Dialysis is a lifesaving treatment, however, not a cure, for kidney disease. 

The second unit, open since September, can serve 25 patients at a time, who each sit for four hours while receiving dialysis treatment. The clinic sits just behind Meridian’s Fire Station No. 8, across from the Lauderdale County Agri-Center on Highway 19. 

“We wanted to let the community be aware that there’s a second Fresenius Kidney Care in Meridian,” Lillie Denese, the clinical manager, said during the clinic’s open house on Tuesday. 

Denese said the clinic could serve patients from Eastern Mississippi and Western Alabama, mostly those who suffer kidney failure as a result of hypertension and diabetes.

“(Both are), unfortunately, very prevalent in this area,” Denese said. “We opened to serve a growing need.”

The first location has 65 chairs and three shifts of patients, in contrast to the 25 chairs and 2 shifts of patients at the second facility. 

“It’s like a family here,” Denese said, adding that some patients will knit or do crosswords to pass the time. “We probably see some patients more than their families do.”