Doctors say they've transplanted a heart that wasn't beating

SYDNEY, Oct. 24 (UPI) —

Usually, heart transplant surgery requires a heart that’s still beating — one taken from a still-breathing but brain dead patient. But for the first time ever, surgeons in Australia performed the surgery using a "dead heart" — one that had stopped beating.

To perform the operation, doctors relied on a medical device called a "heart-in-a-box." The dead heart, once excised from the deceased, is placed in the box where it is warmed and revived with a sterile circuit replenished with fluids that mitigate damage to the muscle. Once brought back to life, the heart is then installed in the new patient. Surgeons say the heart had stopped beating for nearly 20 minutes before it was resuscitated.

"We take it out and we connect it to the circuit and all of a sudden the heart that was blue begins to turn pink," heart surgeon Emily Granger told the Sydney Morning Herald — describing the moments after taking the heart from the donor and installing it in the machine. "It’s almost as though someone says, ‘Oh hello, I’m awake now.’ It gives a little wriggle and it starts beating."

Michelle Gribilas, the 57-year-old who received the new heart two months ago, told BBC News she’s recovering well from surgery and feels brand new. "Now I’m a different person altogether," she said. "I feel like I’m 40 years old — I’m very lucky."

St. Vincent’s Hospital has since performed another surgery using the new technology, and doctors say that should the machine be made more available, it could help mitigate the No. 1 obstacle to performing successful heart transplants — access to transplantable hearts.