Erich Ditschman serves as a patient advocate for Responsum Health. Learning that he had kidney disease as a teen, he and his high school sweetheart went to college, married, started building a family, and lived well for the next twenty years. At the age of thirty-six, Erich’s kidneys shut down in a matter of months. He crashed into dialysis and later received a kidney donated to him by his wife. It failed, and over the next twenty years, Erich experienced all forms of dialysis until he found the one that allowed him and his spouse to continue living a full and productive life.
Erich is a national speaker, author, advocate, and blogger on his Facebook pages, Paddling on Dialysis for Kidney health, and Black Children White Parents. His topics include kidney disease, dialysis, kidney transplant, intimacy with dialysis, coming to terms with chronic illness, getting outside, and discovering one’s best life in the face of adversity.