Saturday 9 February 2013

Home-Made Dialysis Machine

I thought I was imagining things when I read this (it is in the UK's Daily Mail for a start, and that usually means unreliable. But here goes anyway.

The article claims that a Chinese man found dialysis at his local center was proving to be just too expensive. So he built his own dialysis machine. Yes, that's what it says. And it goes on to say that he has used it for 13 years so far. Hu, who suffers from kidney disease, made it from kitchen utensils and old medical instruments after he could no long afford hospital fees. He also makes his own dialysis fluid.

Liberally illustrated with images, it shows Hu Songweb connected to his device.

Although a Communist country, China does not have a cradle-to-grave free-at-the-point of use healthcare system.
Instead around half of the population buy basic medical insurance which covers for half the costs of their healthcare. The remainder is paid either by patients or their health insurer. However, this leaves the poorest in China struggling to meet medical bills for serious conditions.

He said two of his friends had died after building and using similar machines - hmmm, not much of a surprize there.

Now perhaps I'm being a bit cautious here, but I would NOT recommend anyone trying this themselves. No, seriously, don't try this.