Doctor builds dialysis machine in his garage

You seriously think medical equipment is that simple? As Akava noted, whatever concerns the patient is catered for- these machines do monitor and regulate all the ambient levels and liquids coming out and going into your body. As I said though, if this ever happens to you we'll know not to waste our resources on overcomplicated devices and just make a trip to the nearest pet shop .

 

yep, no filters. you can't filter anything useful out of blood. the red and white cells floating around in there are too big. make a filter tight enough to filter out clots or something and you'll just be removing all the blood cells and passing plasma back into the patient. but you're right, the bath has a thermostat and something to circulate the dialysis fluid. woo. i'm not saying that the machines in a dialysis wards are crappy, just that the underlying principles are simple. the doctor in question recognised this and bodged his own together. which is great! he saved the kids life. it's just not a godly technological feat, the original ones were made out of washing machines ffs.

 

The underlying principles of everything are simple. Just because you can apply a reductio ad absurdum does not make your viewpoint valid.

And by the way, the main element in a dialyser is a semipermeable membrane through which small molecules can pass by diffusion. Haemodialysers take blood from the body and pass it along one side of the dialysing membrane so that unwanted small molecules may diffuse into a special dialysing fluid passing along the other side. Small molecules which need not be removed are included in the dialysate so that there is equal diffusion of these molecules in each direction. Haemodialysers are constructed either as membranes wound into coils (not used now), membranes held between flat plates, or made into hollow fibres along the length of a special vessel.

 

It's a shame that even a topic that should bring a glimpse of happiness to even the most rebellious of people, ends in a pointless arguement of knowledge. Zoot2boot, if you have no merit to bring to this thread then I shouldn't bother posting at all. As already said, your point of view is not valid and is frankly offending and rude towards the people that have taken their own time to save the life of a Child. Perhaps your views would be different if it was a child of your own? Well done to them I say.

 

If you search "build your own dialysis machine" in google, this discussion is on the first page! That being said, it's not necessary Nexxo to explain the minutiae of a dialysis machine to emphasis the struggle this Doctor and his colleagues went through to save a child. I think zoot2zoot has clearly shown we all understand the real miracle of this individual, who unlike any doctor before him went out and built specialty equipment for a patient in need of a dialysis machine. While the whole story and the broad concepts of the thing are quite exceptional including the complexities of the machine, they are unimportant in the face of the moral, every life is precious.

On the other hand his initial post was pretty blunt, but this is the internet..

 

They must have built it quick!

Even if it was just a pump & tubing in a warm bath of water, or whatever, i don't know jack about dialysis machines, i think it's impressive that they whipped something together quickly that worked and saved the babies life! I tried whipping up a little home for a couple of little healthy lizards i caught once, and one died within a week so i let the other one go

I also agree that doctors shouldn't have to be spending their time desprately modding in the garage to save lives, and they shouldn't have to choose between buying a machine that will save 10 lives a week, compared to another machine that costs the same or more, yet only saves 1 every month or so.

I could say that the government spends way too much money elsewhere, doing things like killing people, and that money could easily cover these sort of medical costs, among over costs to look after the public... but then others may talk about things like the world's population getting out of control, or inflation, or other stuff so i also think that's it's best not to thread drift, but just praise the doctors for going above & beyond to save the little babies' life as if it were thier own child

It would be pretty cool if they made it using parts of a water cooling kit

 

"How'd you build it?"
'Well, I took a D-Tek pump and some Tygon 3/8th inch tubing...'

Zoot2Boot:

If it's so easy - Do us a how-to with pictures. Test it on yourself, too, so we know it works. Look forward to reading your guide. Kthnx.

 

I'm amazed the NHS haven't tried to make some ridiculous accusations that it could have endangered her life.

Regardless, well done too him, that is thoroughly impressive!