“Three years ago, my wife died, and I just gave up. I didn’t want to do dialysis anymore, so I stopped for a month and a half,” says Juan Perez, whose high blood pressure caused his kidneys to fail five years ago. Juan had started dialysis with UCLA Health right before his wife passed away. “(Nephrologist) Dr. Anjay Rastogi told me I needed to continue. He said my wife was going to be very upset with me if I didn’t take care of me. He motivated me to come back [and continue doing dialysis]. And I thank God I have another opportunity. I’m so thankful to everybody here, because otherwise I wouldn’t be here today. There are very few people like [those at] UCLA who really care for the patients.”

Tags: dialysis, Dr. Anjay Rastogi, featured, high blood pressure, kidney failure, kidneys, Nephrology, US News