Re: [DIYbio] Fwd: An intriguing example of working, medical DIYBio

On Tue, Jan 29, 2013 at 8:54 AM, Josiah Zayner <josiah.zayner@gmail.com> wrote:
> I mean the article is scant on information but think about this.
>
> He has no way to test things like bicarbonate in his blood, sodium,
> potassium, water concentrations and the like.

Unless he included in the quoted 60 yuan cost ($9.64 USD) the price of
test strips like one of these :
http://www.ctlscientific.com/pages/potassium.html

or he just didn't care because low levels of those items probably
stabilize pretty fast, considering the guy's supposed reason (avoiding
death), this seems like a perfectly fine risk to take

> If somehow he managed to find
> the exact flowrate needed with the exact dialysis membranes used for the
> exactly perfect amount of time that's great. Testing something like this on
> yourself is hardly worth the risk.

I'd rather risk killing myself than simply accepting death.

>
> I don't think this is inspirational. I think it is dangerous.

But you don't /need/ a contraption like this to live, you likely have
medical insurance (as I seem to recall you're a grad student in the
U.S.)... of course it's /more/ dangerous than going to the hospital,
but it's /less/ dangerous than simply doing nothing.

> And it seems
> like the article is more of a half-truth.

Yeah it would be great to find the original video he supposedly
posted, but that may be behind the 'Great Firewall of China' if it
exists. But other's have done this before and succeeded, so I don't
doubt it's possibility/plausibility.

> And kind of scary and I hope it
> doesn't inspire people to try and build medical equipment on their own and
> trust their lives to it.

This line of reasoning is what keeps 23andMe illegal in some states
(without being ordered by a doctor), it's pretty sad to me.

>
> How is this guy obtaining anti-coagulants in quantities needed?

Maybe he doesn't need a prescription, or the black/grey market is nice
enough over there that you can get most medicine if you want it.

> How does he keep it sterile?

Looked like he was using disposable sharps, at least. That seems to be
doable within the $9,64 cost that the article mentioned.


--
-Nathan

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