Willem Johan Kolff

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Willem Johan Kolff
Born(1911-02-14)February 14, 1911
Gairdner Foundation International Award (1966)
Harvey Prize (1972)
Wilhelm Exner Medal (1980)[1]
Japan Prize (1986)
Scientific career
ThesisDe kunstmatige nier (1946)
Doctoral advisorRobert Brinkman
Doctoral studentsRobert Jarvik

Willem Johan "Pim" Kolff (February 14, 1911 – February 11, 2009) was a pioneer of

Second World War
. He emigrated in 1950 to the United States, where he obtained US citizenship in 1955, and received a number of awards and widespread recognition for his work.

Netherlands

Born in

chronic kidney failure.[2] This prompted Kolff to perform research on artificial renal function replacement. Also during his residency, Kolff organized the first blood bank in Europe (in 1940). Kolff's first prototype dialyzer was developed in 1943, built from orange juice cans, used auto parts, and sausage casings.[3] Over a two-year span, Kolff had attempted to treat 15 people with his machine, but all had died. In 1945, Kolff successfully treated his first patient, a 67-year-old woman, from kidney failure using his hemodialysis
machine.

During

summa cum laude at University of Groningen on the subject. It marks the start of a treatment that has saved the lives of millions of acute kidney injury
or chronic kidney failure patients ever since.

United States

When the war ended, Kolff donated his artificial kidneys to other hospitals to spread familiarity with the technology. In Europe, Kolff sent machines to London, Amsterdam, and Poland. Another machine sent to Dr. Isidore Snapper at

Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City was used to perform the first human dialysis in the United States on January 26, 1948 under the supervision of Drs. Alfred P. Fishman and Irving Kroop.[5]

In 1950, Kolff left the Netherlands to seek opportunities in the US. At the

heart-lung machines to maintain heart and pulmonary function during cardiac surgery. He also improved on his dialysis machine. At Brigham and Women's Hospital, with funding from New York real estate developer David Rose[6]
he developed the first production artificial kidney, the Kolff Brigham Artificial Kidney, manufactured by the Edward A. Olson Co. in Boston Massachusetts, and later the Travenol Twin-Coil Artificial Kidney.

He became head of the

Barney Clark, who survived for four months, with the heart still functioning at the time of Clark's death.[4]

In 1976 Kolff became a corresponding member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.[7]

Impact

Kolff is considered to be the Father of Artificial Organs, and is regarded as one of the most important physicians of the 20th century.

Life Magazine included him in its list of the 100 Most Important Persons of the 20th Century. He was a co-nominee with William H. Dobelle for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2003. Robert Jarvik, who worked in Kolff's laboratory at the University of Utah beginning in 1971, credited Kolff with inspiring him to develop the first permanent artificial heart.[9] Theodor Kolobow, the inventor of the silicone spiral coil membrane lung and pioneer of artificial organ development, was inspired by Kolff.[10]

Kolff died three days short of his 98th birthday on February 11, 2009, in a care center in Philadelphia.[4] On February 29, 2012, Yad Vashem recognized Willem Johan Kolff and his wife as Righteous Among the Nations, for their part in concealing a Jewish medical colleague and his son.[11]

References

  1. ^ Editor, ÖGV. (2015). Wilhelm Exner Medal. Austrian Trade Association. ÖGV. Austria.
  2. American Academy of Achievement
    .
  3. PMC 2676591
    .
  4. ^ a b c d Moore, Carrie A. "Kolff, 'father of artificial organs,' dies at 97", Deseret News, February 11, 2009. Accessed February 11, 2009.
  5. .
  6. ^ New York Times: "DAVID ROSE" July 18, 1986
  7. ^ "Willem Johan Kolff (1911 - 2009)". Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 24 January 2016.
  8. American Academy of Achievement
    .
  9. ^ Milestones, Time Magazine, March 2, 2009, p.18
  10. PMID 26720733
    .
  11. ^ "Yad Vashem Web Site". Retrieved 28 July 2018.

Sources

External links