12. The first artificial kidney machine
As a physician practicing in Groeningen, the Netherlands in 1943, Willem Johan Kolff grew frustrated at watching young patients die from kidney failure. He knew there had to be some way to remove kidney-damaging toxins from the blood. So he began working on his first dialysis machine in 1943 while the Netherlands were under Nazi occupation. But materials were a rare commodity. So jerry-rigging was in order. Using cellophane sausage skin, a car pump, and a slatted revolving drum, he came up with the Kolff Rotating Drum. It was a rather ramshackle device, and unfortunately, 15 of his patients didn’t survive. But the 16th patient, a 67-year-old woman did. After 11 hours of therapy.
So how did the Kolff Rotating Drum work?
Using a 20-meter long tube of sausage casing wrapped around the slatted rotating drum, an electric motor did most of the work. Suspended in a tank filled with a fluid that bathed and drew toxins out of the bloodstream and also provided it with electrolytes, the treatment drained blood from the patient which filled a sterile jug. Blood-thinning drugs were added, the jug was hung above the machine and linked to the sausage casing. Turning the drum, the motor filled the casing with blood, and wastes were filtered through the casing into the fluid in the tank. Now cleansed, the blood flowed into a second sterile jug hung above the other end of the machine. The six-hour treatment culminated with the blood flowing back into the patient.