OnSat phone keeps rural kidney patient in touch with world

Judy and Albert Kee wait outside of their home Wednesday while installers from OnSat work to place a satellite dish on their home in Pine Springs, Ariz. that will provide them with Internet access and telephone service through the computer connection. Arnold needs a kidney transplant and has missed two opportunities to receive one because of the lack of telephone service has made him unreachable in time. [Photo by Jeff Jones/Independent]

By Pamela G. Dempsey
Diné Bureau

PINE SPRINGS — One man's medical hardship has prompted a technology company to bring him something he's never had before: phone service.

Albert Kee, and his wife Judy, live 18 miles from Highway 264 off a dirt road.

Surrounded by trees, their single-wide mobile home plays host to the seven children they've raised, nearby family, and baby chickens.

Although retired, Kee, 60, spends a lot of time on the road.

Three times a week, he gets up at 2 a.m. to make the nearly hour-long trek into Gallup for dialysis treatment.

After his four-hour appointment at Rehoboth McKinley Christian Hospital, Kee returns home often to a nap.

"Sometimes I come home sick and get to bed and sleep all day," he said.

For the past six years, Kee has been waiting for a kidney. In December, doctors also found spots of cancer on his colon.

When a kidney does become available, Kee has just two hours to get to Albuquerque for surgery.

Although Kee does have a cell phone, service is sporadic due to his location.

"Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't," his wife said.

Emergency services find it hard to locate the family because they also lack a rural address. And when it rains, even leaving home becomes treacherous, as the road turns to mud.

While the couple does not have running water or a septic system, they do have electricity.

On Wednesday, OnSat installed a satellite dish to bring both the Internet and phone service to the family.

Mounted on their roof and wired through their home, the family has a new phone number using voice-over technology.

Now, emergency services are available 24 hours a day, instead of only when the cell-phone signal is good.

"We're getting him whatever he needs," said Dave Stephens, chairman of OnSat. "We're trying to save the guy's life right now."

Stephens learned of Kee's dilemma through Council Delegate Curran Hannon, who also helped organize plane service from Window Rock for Kee through Sen. Rick Renzi.

"Curran is really helping us," Judy Kee said. "We really love him for that."

Stephens estimates that 70 percent of Navajo Nation residents are still without phone service, down from 78 percent before cell service.

Kee's new phone service works like a land-line phone, except his service is through a satellite. He can receive and make phone calls.

While the service is donated by OnSat to Kee, once marketed, other customers can expect to pay less than $100 a month for both satellite Internet and phone service.