A Chinese man has undergone 13 years of dialysis with a machine he built himself out old medical instruments and kitchen utensils, resorting to the makeshift treatment after he was no longer able to pay for his hospital bills.
Hu Songwen told reporters that 2 of his friends had died using their own makeshift dialysis systems, but he remains dedicated to his home therapy.
Performing his own dialysis costs him about $9.63 (60 yuan) per session, more than 80% less than it would cost him in a clinic, he noted.
Hu uses his machine 3 times a week, pumping out his blood through medical tubing and using a homemade dialysis solution that he mixes himself in order to clean the toxins that his own kidneys are unable to remove from his blood.
When news of his potentially dangerous home treatment spread in local reports, Hu was offered government aid that would bring down the cost of clinical treatment to what he pays at home.
Hu told reports that the clinic was far away from his home in Qutang township in the Jiangsu Province where he lives with his 81-year-old mother, and that he was reluctant to make the trip, according to the Daily Mail.