Dr Willem Kolff, who had rekindled his relationship with Membrana and made a two-day visit to its Wuppertal headquarters earlier in the year, was the star of the show at the Membrana booth at the 39th ERA-EDTA Congress in Copenhagen in August 2002.
During the early days of kidney dialysis in the 1940s Dr Kolff was assisted by Dr Jacob van Noordwijk, now the author of 'Dialysing for Life', a fascinating account of how Willem Kolff succeeded 'in spite of all the limitations imposed by the occupation of The Netherlands, and in spite of the absence of antibiotics and other medical tools which are now common.'
Visitors to the Membrana booth at EDTA were able to pick up a copy of this extraordinary story, signed by Dr Kolff, and to meet the great man himself. Not surprisingly queues of delegates took advantage of this rare chance to talk to the man who has perhaps given more hope to dialysis and transplant patients than any other alive today.
In fact if it hadn't been for Willem Kolff, there might never have been an ERA-EDTA Congress…
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