Brief Biography:
Dr. Kolff was born in 1911 in a small town in the Netherlands. He is the oldest of 5 boys and studied medicine at the local Leiden University. He is responsible for organizing the first blood bank in Europe and was very involved in the anti-German resistance in WWII. After the war he went on to receive a Ph.D at the University of Groningen.
Contributions:
During his time leading a German resistance Kolff developed the first artificial kidney system. in 1943 he was able to test the system on a patient and was able to save a life by 1945 with the hemodialysis treatment.
So what?Before the use of hemodialysis treatment kidney failure was a death sentence. Without this technology millions of people would have died a painful death form blood poisoning. This technology has prolonged the life of many people and with better technology these systems are getting smaller and less invasive. Using the hemodialysis technology a fully implantable artificial kidney is on the horizon.
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