Nutrition during a natural disaster for people with end-stage kidney disease

Preparation and communication are key to ensuring the safety of dialysis patients when natural disasters strike. This paper recounts the Cyclone Yasi experience that hit Queensland in February 2011, with particular focus on the many nutritional challenges faced. Seventy-one dialysis patients were evacuated from Cairns to Brisbane in the early hours of the morning, a potentially life-saving decision made by the Queensland Government. Many patients, rushed from their homes, arrived in Brisbane with only the clothes on their back and no medications, identification cards or documented medical history. Timely multidisciplinary response and communication and consistent advice onmenu planning is necessary to inform both individual patients and evacuation centres of the appropriate dietary restrictions. This paper proposes a guide for future direction.