Jack Cole, a key early contributor to the development of chronic dialysis, entered the field at a pivotal moment in medical history. After studying at the University of Washington, he joined Dr. Belding Scribner’s pioneering dialysis team in Seattle on February 15, 1960—just weeks before the first successful chronic hemodialysis treatment of patient Clyde Shields. In this 2009 oral history interview, Cole recounts his firsthand experiences during the formative years of the program, offering insight into the ingenuity and urgency that defined early dialysis work. He describes building Skeggs-Leonard dialyzers by hand, testing and sterilizing complex multi-part devices, and crafting Teflon tubing into the now-famous Scribner shunts—often custom-made at the patient’s bedside. These efforts, carried out under resource constraints and with little precedent, helped launch a revolutionary therapy that would transform treatment for patients with kidney failure.
