[MoralSense]

The dialysis reports have been around for some time. Yesterday's news included speculation by a Western journalist, who actually interviewed bin Laden while he was hooked up to a dialysis machine in some cave, that bin Laden might be dead.

I was on dialysis for 6 years, then got a kidney transplant. I know the videos of bin Laden are of iffy quality, but I've noticed a steady deterioration of his skin color, characteristc of kidney failure. How long would it take to die without dialysis treatment? Depends on how serious his kidney failure is, and it depends on what he eats. It could be a quick as a week, or as long as a month.

[eno_]

There would also be an interval in which bin Laden would be alive but in dab shape, both physically and mentally, due to his blood chemistry being way out of whack. If he died this way it is probable he had no way to command those around him to do anything useful to try to save him. Ha ha.

[Rowdee]

They generally don't start dialysis until the kidneys are in failure, i.e., 95% non-functioning, a person's BUNN and creatinine levels indicate this and a factor includes body size.

My husband was a dialysis patient for 7 years; one of the 'weapons' dialysis patients always felt they had to keep themselves in control of their destiny was that they could decide whether to dialyze or not, thus bringing an end to their life.

I was with my husband several times when he discussed this not only with other patients, but with the doctors, and nursing staffs. They all indicated that without dialyzing, you could figure from 3 to 7 days. Before the end, the patient goes into a comma and doesn't recover....we knew a patient who took this course of action.

[steve-b]

How long would it take to die without dialysis treatment?

It could take quite a while. I lost a cat to kidney failure, and it's not something I would wish on even bin Laden.

[Post Toasties]

How ironic that, if lack of access to a dialysis machine caused bin Laden's death, that he essentially brought it on himself.

So, count him a self-inflicted casualty of his jihad on the post-Medieval world.

Bin Laden - a martyr to his own Islamist stupidity.

[angkor]

Interesting. Happy to hear you're in better shape now.

In my post #71, I mention some medical research about kidney problems. There was a mention of hemodialysis (one of several dialysis techniques). Are you familiar with that, or how often it's used? It caught my attention because one of the side-effects of hemodialysis is bloating, which might explain why UBL looked so bloated in the confession tape.

There's also mention that a symptom of untreated renal failure would be a yellow/brown or even pasty white complexion, which UBL certainly displayed in the last video.

Is it possible that UBL had a hemodialysis treatment in Kandahar (which is where it is presumed he made the confession tape), and after escaping to the mountains had no dialysis and thus began succumbing to renal failure with its telltale symptoms?