Oz Doctors In First 'Dead Heart' Transplant

In a world-first operation, doctors in Australia have managed to transplant a heart that had stopped beating.

The breakthrough technique was carried out by surgeons at St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney, who say the technique will increase the number of hearts available for transplant and save up to 30% more lives.

For the procedure, the donor heart was not beating for up to 20 minutes before it was resuscitated and successfully transplanted.

The heart was brought back to life, placed on a machine and then injected with a ground-breaking preservation solution.

Professor Peter MacDonald, Medical Director of the St Vincent’s Heart Transplant Unit, said, "In many respects, this breakthrough represents a major inroad to reducing the shortage of donor organs.

"In all our years, our biggest hindrance has been the limited availability of donor organs."

Transplant units until now have relied solely on donor hearts from brain-dead patients whose hearts are still beating.

However, three patients in Sydney have now received hearts using this new technique and are recovering well.

The hospital, along with the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, jointly developed a special preservation solution.

The solution, together with the use of a novel portable console to house, resuscitate and transport donor hearts, has made this milestone achievable.

The solution took 12 years to develop and reduces the amount of damage to the heart after it has stopped beating.

It also makes the heart more resilient to the transplant process as well as improving heart function when it is restarted.

The console the organ is placed in has been nicknamed the "heart in a box". Once inside, the heart is restarted, preserved and can be monitored before the transplant operation.

One patient, Michelle Gribilar, said she "felt 40 again" after the procedure.

The 57-year-old Sydney woman told Channel 9 news that, prior to the operation, she had not been able to walk 100 metres without trouble.

Now she walks 3km and climbs 100-120 stairs every day.

"I'm a different person altogether," she said.

Three patients have now had transplants using the new technique, the latest receiving a heart only this week.