Richard Gere and Julia Roberts had obvious chemistry upon their first meeting. However, Richard was not planning on taking the role. He was on the phone ready to turn down the part when Julia slid him a post-it note with the words please say yes written on it.
Without life-sustaining dialysis or a kidney transplant, once a person with kidney disease reaches Stage 5 (end stage renal disease (ESRD)), toxins build up in the body and death usually comes within a few weeks. The decision to stop treatment should be an informed and voluntary choice.
However, missing dialysis means more toxins will build up in the body so as to the patient becoming sick. Generally, the exact answer of how long can renal failure patients live without renal failure depends on the kidney function that they still have. If the person is passing a reasonable amount of urine, he may be able to survive a few weeks to over a month, otherwise he may survive only a few days to two weeks.