Willem Kolff
It was in 1943, in Nazi-occupied Holland, that Willem "Pim" Kolff, who has died aged 97, put together the first version of what he preferred to call an artificial kidney, but which the world came to know as the kidney dialysis machine. Later, in the US, Kolff pioneered the artificial heart and the membrane oxygenator for bypass surgery. But in 1943 he was a member of the resistance, materials were in short supply and manufacturers were under orders to deal exclusively with the Germans. To make his machine, Kolff used sausage casing made of cellophane (then a new substance), orange juice tins, part of a water pump he obtained from a Ford dealer, and a revolving drum containing fluid to clean deadly impurities from the blood that the kidneys were failing to remove.At first, his experimental treatments on patients failed to work well, and 16 succumbed to renal illness. Then,...
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