

Dying baby saved when doc designed & built dialysis machine from scratch in garage - kirubakaran
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7542404.stm

======
sspencer
That doctor deserves some serious kudos. I cannot even fathom how grateful
those parents must have been for his work after being told by all other
doctors that the baby was too small for dialysis. That kind of fuck-you-I-can-
make-it-smaller ballsiness is why I am proud to call myself a hacker.

~~~
ajross
Not to belittle the doctor's work, but the truth is this isn't _that_ hard a
hack to imagine. Dialysis is a pretty simple process, done with a diffusion
membrane. No doubt what he did was take a membrane intended for a normal
machine and size it down with "plumbing" appropriate for the patient.

But then, that's kind of an essential quality of all great hacks, isn't it?
They all look straightforward and simple when they're finished.

~~~
qwph
I couldn't see any mention of the time it took to build the device, but I'd
hazard a guess that the lifespan of a 6lb baby with failed kidneys could be
measured in hours, which would seem to imply that the design was reasonably
straightforward.

Not to devalue the doctor's work though. He did save someone's life.

~~~
akd
Yes I'm sure it's "reasonably straightforward" to build a dialysis machine in
a couple of hours, racing against a dying baby.

~~~
qwph
I said "design", not "build".

------
occam
You would think that someone is already manufacturing infant-sized dialysis
machiness. Throughout the story they emphasize that NHS has no such machines,
never quite saying if hospitals elsewhere have them. Is that because NHS just
refuses to buy any?

------
jedc
I'm really surprised that the NHS let it happen!

~~~
jedc
To clarify, the NHS is a VERY risk averse organisation. And a home-built
dialysis machine is a very risky machine to build and use. Well done to the
doc.

~~~
a-priori
I think even a risk averse organization would realize that when the options
are A) baby will die or B) baby may be hurt by untested machine, option B is
clearly better.

~~~
hugh
Even a very risk-averse _person_ would see B as clearly better, but a risk-
averse _organization_ will usually prefer option A.

Nobody gets in trouble for following the rules. Besides, the NHS, as an
organization, sees thousands of dead babies a year, why should it care about
another?

~~~
thaumaturgy
This is a perfect representation of the classic ethical dilemma, the Trolley
Problem [<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolley_problem>].

Risk-averse organizations fall into the same category as people who would
decide not to throw the lever, because if they don't take any action, then
they aren't responsible for any of the consequences (which is stupid, imo).

------
swombat
Dr McGyver?

~~~
smhinsey
If I'm not mistaken, there actually was a McGuyver episode where he made a
dialysis machine out of spare parts.

------
stcredzero
The headline makes this sound like MacGyver, which it's not. But still
awesome!

------
flipbrad
a true hacker. inspiring stuff.

