What happens when one kidney fails?!
Question: what would happen, i need help!!!
Answers: what would happen, i need help!!!
the context of whether the kidney fails acutely or chronically is very relevant to the answer.
people can often be born with a malfunctioning kidney, and in cases such as these, the other kidney becomes very much larger to compensate. this person will eventually need another kidney otherwise they will die from not being able to remove toxins from the body, and in particular not being able to excrete potassium.
in an acute state, this would be life threatening, and emergency heamodialysis would be only treatment. having said that I cant think of a sitauation where just one kidney would fail, because its much more common for both kidneys to fail. the only situatoin where one kidney would be failing would be as I said if you are born with a defunct one, in which case, renal failure would no the be the presenting complaint, it would be stunted growth.
hopefully your other kidney is functioning at an adequate rate to help your body get rid of the waste it needs too.right now both of my father's kidneys are failing as he has been diabetic for years.his kidney function is 30% when he reaches about 15% they will start dialysis.
I would imagine that you'd become quite ill. The other kidney would need to compensate for the other. Kinda like 2 being blind in one eye or deaf in one ear where the other organ has to work twice as hard .