Aussie doctors perform world-first transplant of DEAD hearts into patients in a medical breakthrough that will save thousands more lives

Aussie doctors perform world-first transplant of DEAD hearts into patients in a medical breakthrough that will save thousands more lives
Aussie doctors perform world-first transplant of DEAD hearts into patients in a medical breakthrough that will save thousands more lives


• Doctors at St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney conduct world-first transplants

• Surgeons successfully brought three dead hearts back to life

• The transplants were made possible using a preservation solution developed with the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute

• The hospital believes 30 percent more lives will be able to be saved.

Australian doctors have successfully brought three dead hearts back to life and transplanted them into patients in a world-first operation.
The doctors at St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney used a preservation solution developed with the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute to transplant the organs into 57-year-old Michelle Gribilas, 44-year-old Jan Damen and a third patient still in recovery.
One of the hearts had stopped beating for 20 minutes before it was brought back to life, placed on a machine and injected with the preservation solution.


The hospital believes 30 percent more lives will be saved thanks to the solution, which reduces the amount of damage to the heart and makes it more resilient to transplantation.
Before these operations, heart surgeons have only been able to use donor hearts from 100 percent brain-dead patients, but now the donor pool will be expanded significantly.
The solution, which took 12 years to develop, also improves the function of the hearts Donated after Circulatory Death (DCD) when they are restarted.
Ms Gribilas, who is retired and lives in Campsie in southwest Sydney, said she is a 'different person altogether' after receiving her transplant. more