Dutch-American Heritage Day

1999

Prof.dr.Kolff geëerd

Dit was op de Dutch-American Heritage Day in het Peterson Automobile Museum in Los Angeles in 1999. Hij werd toen door de het Nederlandse contingent in California geëerd. Hans Davidson (gynaecoloog) “Ik heb lange tijd met hem gepraat, een fascinerende man”. De man in het midden is Frank Versteeg, een in Nederland opgeleide hartchirurg die nu in Pasadena woont.

Annual black-tie dinner (Picture _courtesy Hans Davidson)

A man on a mission

De Los Angeles Times berichtte destijds : This year’s fete at Petersen Automotive Museum honored Dr. Willem J. Kolff, inventor of the artificial kidney, heart and lung. Life magazine has named him one of the 100 most important Americans of the 20th century. Kolff is also a man on a mission: the $3.5 million restoration of his old hospital in Kampen, Holland. It was there, in 1945, shortly before he immigrated to the U.S., that he constructed with his own funds and hands the world’s first successful artificial kidney from wooden slats, sausage casing, a Ford gear pump and a porcelain bathtub.