But problems can occur at the point where the dialysis machine is connected.

BBC: NEWS | Health | Graft hope for dialysis patients

Her kidneys were gone, and she would have to spend three days a week on a dialysis machine for the rest of her life.

NEWYORKER: Letting Go

In 2002, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said bin Laden had kidney disease, for which he required a dialysis machine, and was therefore likely dead.

CNN: Commentary: Where's Osama bin Laden?

Coincidentally, an inventor of an early mobile dialysis machine, Dr. Norman Lasker, just died and today had an obituary today in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

FORBES: Osama Bin Laden's Health May Remain A Mystery Even As Details Of His Death Are Released

The kidneys do a better job than the dialysis machine, there is less of a risk of infection that way, and it is even less expensive and more convenient.

FORBES: Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman is Correct, Cato Institute's Mitchell is Wrong

Home Dialysis Plus in Portland, Oregon has an all-in-one dialysis machine that is half the weight of NxStage's and uses ink-jet technology from Hewlett-Packard to continuously mix small amounts of dialysis solution on the fly.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Home Dialysis Plus in Portland, Ore. has an all-in-one dialysis machine that is half the weight of NxStage's and uses ink-jet technology from Hewlett-Packard to continuously mix small amounts of dialysis solution on the fly.

FORBES: The Home Cure

For the white Talbot-Runhof dress, a base fabric was embroidered with sequins, sewn to the dialysis-machine filter fabric and then bathed in a liquid that dissolved the base, leaving fringes of sequins attached to the filter-cum-dress.

WSJ: Polyester Is Back in Style at Alexander Wang, Talbot Runhof, Akris

His six-pound machine uses peritoneal dialysis but has catalysts and enzymes that remove the toxins from dirty solution so the liquid can be reused.

FORBES: Magazine Article