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Milton Roy kidney machine used for home dialysis.
When a person’s kidneys fail, waste products cannot be removed from the blood. Serious illness inevitably follows. During the 1950s, the first machines that could successfully take over the job of the kidneys were developed. Once connected to the patient, they took in blood in order for it to be filtered. The cleaned blood was then returned to the body.
Moreen Lewis, one of the first patients to have a dialysis machine at home, used this machine. It was her lifeline for nine years. Like other patients at the time, she had to find £7,000 to pay for the machine and for technical support.
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Science Museum: Medicine: The Wellcome Galleries
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Details
- Category:
- Therapeutics
- Object Number:
- 1979-202
- Materials:
- Ferrous metal, aluminium alloy, brass (copper, zinc alloy), complete, electrical components, glass, mica, plastic, rubber (unidentified) and wood composites
- type:
- kidney dialysis machine
- credit:
- Lewis, C.
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