After Dr Angus Rae published his article “Russell Palmer: Forgotten Champion” (BCMJ 2010:51:466), he was contacted by the prestigious Hemodialysis International saying they’d like to reprint the article, but with two corrections.
Meticulous researcher that he is, Dr Rae was concerned to learn of these errors, but was gratified to discover that his original findings were correct. First, Russell Palmer’s hemodialysis in September 1947 was the first clinically successful treatment in North America using Dr Willem Kolff's original equipment, preceding that in New York by a few months. Second, Palmer was the first in the world to initiate an unassisted home peritoneal dialysis in January 1964.
Shortly after the BCMJ article was published, Dr Rae was contacted by a family member of that first home peritoneal dialysis patient and provided with documentary evidence supporting his assertion (yellowed newspaper articles from February 1965).
To read more about these BC firsts, see Dr Rae's BCMJ blog post.
