News Digest

In world-first, Australian doctors transplant heart that had stopped beating

In what has been described as the biggest breakthrough in a decade, surgeons at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney have transplanted hearts from dead bodies into patients. The team at St Vincent’s Hospital Heart Lung Transplant Unit announced on Friday they had for the first time conducted the transplants with three heart failure patients using donor hearts that had stopped beating for 20 minutes. Previously, hears were beating and from brain-dead patients. Two of the patients have recovered well, while the third is still in intensive care. The procedure has been described as a “paradigm shift” that will herald a major increase in the pool of hearts available for transplantation. It’s predicted the breakthrough will save the lives of 30 per cent more heart transplant patients.

I was very sick before I had it. Now I’m a different person altogether. I feel like I’m 40 years old. I’m very lucky.

Michelle Gribilas, 57-year-old woman who became the first patient to have the surgery done

Victor Chang Institute executive director Professor Bob Graham said that the procedure starts with a patient whose brain is almost completely gone, but still has a little bit of brain function. “And if the relatives agree we can turn off the life support. And when we do that the heart gradually stops beating over about 15 minutes. We then by law have to wait another five minutes to make sure the heart has really stopped. Then we can take the heart out and put it on a console where we connect it up with blood going through the heart and providing oxygen. Gradually the heart starts beating again.” He said the new preservation solution reduced damage to the hearts, made them more resilient for transplantation.