World and Nation
Willem Kolff, Inventor of Kidney And Heart Machines, Dies at 97
Dr. Willem J. Kolff, a resourceful Dutch physician who invented the first artificial kidney in a rural hospital during World War II, using sausage casings and even orange juice cans, and went on to build the first artificial heart, died Wednesday at his home in Newtown Square, Pa. Kolff, whose work has been credited with saving millions of lives, was 97.