Australian doctors have successfully brought the three dead hearts back to life and transplanted them to their patients using a new technique that they say will soon be used everywhere.
Doctors at St. Vincent's Hospital in Sydney used a preservation procedure developed in conjunction with scientists at the Heart Research Institute and transplanted the hearts of Michelle Gribilas, 57, Ian Deimen, 44, and a third patient who is still recovering.
One of the transplanted hearts remained dead for 20 minutes before being brought back to life by placing it in a preservative solution and plugging it into a special machine. The hospital believes that such a solution, which reduces the amount of damage to the heart and improves its suitability for transplantation, will save 30% more lives.
The solution, which took 12 years to develop, also improves the function of the donor heart. Pensioner Michelle Gribilas, who became the first to receive a "dead heart", said that after the operation she became a completely different person.
“I had a transplant a couple of months ago and was feeling really bad,” she said. - Now I feel great. I walk up to three kilometers a day."
The second patient, Jan Deimen, who is the father of three children, said: “I feel amazing. I have to say that I never thought I would feel so good in my hospital pajamas."
The new procedure will significantly expand the donor pool. Previously, cardiac surgeons could only use donated hearts from patients whose brain was 100% dead. However, the new solution allows the transplant of hearts from deceased patients that were previously thought to be too damaged to use.
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The dilemma was that, according to Australian law, surgeons must wait for a heartbeat for five minutes after disconnecting a patient from the life-support machine before starting the organ removal procedure. In cases where the brain worked at least 5%, organ damage occurred due to lack of oxygen.
Until now, it was believed that such hearts could not be used for transplantation, however, with the advent of a new solution that is injected into the heart, it begins to regenerate.
One of the surgeons who performed the operations said the technology would have implications for transplanting units around the world.