Surprised to see the human heart still beating outside the body while waiting for a transplant

Thanks to a revolutionary technology, the donor's heart is still guaranteed to be throbbing in a body-separated box until the moment it is transplanted for the needy.

The heart is still beating when outside the chest

The life of 26-year-old Lee Hall was threatened after the mechanical heart, which helped him survive the previous five years, began to cease to function. However, this young father was saved by the transplantation of a donated heart, maintained outside the body through a pioneering technology called "Heart in the box".

Mr. Lee is one of the first patients to benefit from the breakthrough technology. After the surgery, he can now enjoy life with his wife and children without having to worry about charging the mechanical heart every day like before.

Mr. Lee is healthy with his wife and children after a heart transplant is preserved by the technology "heart in the box" of new breakthroughs.

According to medical records, Mr. Lee began to develop heart failure at age 14, partly due to the treatment of leukemia as a child. Initially, the drugs helped improve Lee's heart function, but by the age of 20, he began to pant and tired non-stop at work. He was taken to Harefield Hospital and fitted with a left ventricular support device (LVAD) - a mechanical heart pump that is often used to sustain patients and help them to leave the disease. Institute while waiting for a biological heart transplant.

Mr. Lee is still in relatively good health for 5 years, but by the beginning of this year, he was included in the list of urgent heart failure health transplants.

New technology helps keep warm and keep the heart still throbbing, qualified for transplant for 8 hours after being removed from the donor's body.

Dr. Chris Bowles, the transplant technology specialist at Harefield, explained that, when Lee's heart was malfunctioning, the doctors struggled to maintain life for him until his heart was donated. donated for transplant.

Mr. Lee Hall with his wife and children.

Previously, all donated hearts in the UK were taken from those who were declared brain dead, provided they still pumped blood throughout their bodies. These internal organs are then frozen in the icebox and need to be transplanted within 4 hours, before being restarted by the doctors.

However, with the "heart in a box" technology , the beating hearts are still eligible for organ transplants, as long as they are removed from the brain-dead body within half an hour there. The new technology helps keep the heart warm and can keep them throbbing as usual in the body for up to 8 hours, twice as long as it is stored in a traditional frozen ice box.

According to doctors, currently, not everyone who needs a heart transplant can receive this organ, because there is not enough heart to donate appropriately. Therefore, new breakthrough technology can bring more hope for these patients.