When a person needs a heart transplant, the new heart usually comes from a person who is considered brain dead, but the heart is still beating. This is because the heart is the only organ that cannot be used after circulatory death (when the heart stops beating). However, surgeons in Australia have successfully performed the first heart transplant with a dead heart. This heart had stopped beating for over 20 minutes, and with the help of a machine currently named "heart-in-a-box," these surgeons were able to revive the heart and give it to a patient in need. When this patient woke up, she said that she felt "a decade younger," claiming that she was now a different person completely.
More information can be found here: http://www.bbc.com/news/health-29751880
I find it interesting how they can just revive a dead heart. I am sure there are many reasons against using an expired heart, so how did they get around them.
ReplyDeleteHave they been catching up with the patient that was given the heart? Have there been any complications? If not, then I think that reviving dead hearts is very promising.
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