A pediatrician saved a baby girl’s life with a homemade kidney dialysis machine he created in his garage, the Daily Mail reported Monday.
When Millie Sophie Kelly was born, Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle, England, did not have a dialysis machine small enough to fit the newborn, who was suffering from kidney failure after she underwent an operation to fix a condition called gastroschisis, in which the bowels develop outside of the body.
Doctors told Rebecca Kelly, of Middlebrough, England, there was little chance of survival for her daughter, who weighed 6 pounds, 2 ounces. But Dr. Malcolm Coulthard already was hard at work in his garage.
The little girl was put on Coulthard’s dialysis machine for seven days. The machine took blood from Millie’s body, filtered it and returned it to her system. Slowly she began to show signs of improvement.
Now, two years later, she is a healthy toddler.
"Words cannot describe how grateful my family is to Dr. Coulthard," Rebecca Kelly told the Daily Mail. "It looked handmade in the garage, but I thought if it will save my baby’s life, then I have to try it."
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