Willem Kolff and the Invention of the Dialysis Machine

After watching several patients die of kidney failure, Willem Kolff began to think of ways their deaths could have been prevented. If I could just remove as much urea as this boy creates, which is about 20 grams, then the boy would live, he thought. He began to read every book he could find on purifying the blood. Through much experimentation, Kolff developed an artificial kidney. In 1946, Kolff donated his artificial kidneys to London, New York, and Montreal in an effort to help as many people as possible. Over the next half century, he would become known as one of the greatest medical inventors of all time and earn the nickname the Father of Artificial Organs.