Kampen, occupied Holland. 1943.
No supplies. Enemy patrols...
in the street.
One doctor refused to surrender.
Under the shadow of tyranny's glare
Dr. Willem Kolff saw a hospital of despair
Uremic poison burning through a dying patient's veins
With no medicine to ease the bitter wartime pains
He went to the local butcher, bought sausage skins of twine
Cellophane membranes to serve as a design!
Scavenged a water pump from a bombed-out Ford garage
Building a revolution behind the espionage!
Orange juice cans and an enamel laundry tub...
Spinning the wooden drum in the underground club!
Can human blood be washed by a wooden wheel?
CAN MAN REPLACE THE BODY WITH...
STEEL?!
SAUSAGE CASINGS AND CAR PARTS IN THE WARTIME NIGHT!
WILLEM KOLFF BLAZED THE FIRST ARTIFICIAL LIGHT!
THE FATHER OF BIO-MED STANDING HIS POST!
WASHING THE BLOOD OF A DYING GHOST!
ACROSS THE CELLOPHANE, THE POISON FLEES!
THE GREATEST CONQUEST OVER MORTAL DISEASE!
For two long years, the early trials failed
While the storm of the German occupation sailed
Then in September forty-five, when the Allied banners flew
A woman in a coma was brought before the crew!
Eleven hours on the wooden drum, the poison dropped away!
She opened up her eyes to the liberation day!
The first human life by an artificial organ saved
A milestone on the path that the Bio-Med...
paved! [instrumental]
SAUSAGE CASINGS AND CAR PARTS IN THE WARTIME NIGHT!
WILLEM KOLFF BLAZED THE FIRST ARTIFICIAL LIGHT!
THE FATHER OF BIO-MED STANDING HIS POST!
WASHING THE BLOOD OF A DYING GHOST!
ACROSS THE CELLOPHANE, THE POISON FLEES!
THE GREATEST CONQUEST OVER MORTAL DISEASE!
Dialysis was born from scrap iron...
and faith.
Long live Willem Kolff.