Chinese man kept alive for 13 years with homemade dialysis machine:

A man in China suffering from kidney disease has been using a homemade dialysis machine for the last 13 years.

Mr Hu Songwen, from Nantong, Jiangsu province, was diagnosed with uraemia in 1993, reported the Guangzhou-based Southern Weekly. For six years, he received 13 dialysis treatments a month and this used up his family's savings, the paper reported.

Mr Hu began experimenting with the machine in 1996, buying the necessary parts and solutions to conduct blood-filtering treatment at home. He said the process costs only 60 yuan (S$12) each time, eight times cheaper than the cost of haemodialysis in a hospital.

Mr Hu built his own haemodialysis machine with medical equipment, such as a blood pump and plastic tubing bought from a local market, reported Xinhua news agency. Three times a week, Mr Hu sits on a small toilet in his home and fires up his homemade dialysis machine.

Mr Hu mixes potassium chloride, sodium chloride and sodium hydrogen carbonate into purified water to make dialysis fluid before undergoing the procedure.

"Most people who suffer from kidney disease are unaware of the theory behind the machines," he said.