Dr John Dique: the ‘uncompromising racist’ who made Australia’s first dialysis machine
He first used his 'mechanical kidney' successfully in 1954.
MECHANICAL KIDNEY IS A BOON IN ACCIDENTS
That was the 1954 headline in the newspaper Truth that announced the start of dialysis in Australia.
This ‘mechanical kidney’ was a 1.3-metre rotating drum wrapped in an extended semi-permeable tube of cellophane and submerged in a 150L plastic bathtub full of dialysis fluid.
The brains behind it were Brisbane General Hospital serologist Dr John Charles Dique and the hospital’s chief electrician, Harold Lloyd.
