Dr. Beresford Swan, who established the first hemodialysis unit in Bermuda, is stepping down as the director of dialysis at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital in June.

He will be replaced by Dr. Martin Campbell Gregory, a naturalised American who was born in New Zealand, and most recently a Professor of Medicine at the University of Utah.

Dr. Swan set up the unit in 1978 after an international symposium two years earlier identified the need for patients suffering from kidney failure to be treated locally.

It has grown from a staff of three, with three patients and two machines to 60 patients, a staff of 16 and 20 machines.

Some 56 Bermudians have had kidney transplants with a 90 percent take rate, and the unit has performed more than 200,000 hemodialysis procedures with no fatalities.

Dr. Beresford is proud of the fact that his unit has certified 40 nurses in the field, who have all passed external exams through the help of the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

Moving on: Dr. Beresford Swan set King Edward VII Memorial Hospital's dialysis unit in 1978.