His earliest design consisted of 50 yards of sausage casing wrapped around a wooden drum set in a saline solution. He later experimented with using such components as orange juice cans and a washing machine designed for clothes. For inspiration on how to get the cleansed blood back into the patient, he studied a water pump off of a Ford automotive engine. He is said to have even used metal from a downed German fighter plane. Dr. William Kolff died Wednesday, February 11, 2009. His obituary from the London Telegraph is fascinating. Hat tip to Wall Street Journal Blog.
2 thoughts on “The First Kidney Dialysis Machine”
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If he did that today, he never would have gotten FDA approval. Or am I wrong. Is this contraption regulated as a device?
Don’t know if the FDA has jurisdiction, but the whole thing is rather amazing.