Heart transplants are one way to save heart patients. Doctors usually transplant a donor heart from a brain victim that is still beating into a beneficiary patient. However, the number of such hearts is relatively small, pediatric patients more difficult to find the right size, so they have not been waiting for the right heart to pass away. A team from two hospitals in the UK worked together earlier to successfully use a newly developed device to “revive” the stalled hearts and transplant them into six children aged 12 to 16, giving them a new lease on Life. The team recently revealed their achievement for the first Time.
Using an instrument called the Organ Preservation System (OCS), the Royal Papworth Hospital (RPH) in Cambridgeshire placed the stalled heart from the donor into the box of the instrument, then set the instrument to simulate human conditions, preserving the heart at 34 degrees Celsius and delivering oxygen, blood and nutrients to the heart. Not only does the “dead” donor heart beat again, but the heart can be preserved for 12 hours.
RPH and doctors at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children (GOSH) in February last year, for the first time for a 16-year-old girl from Worcester, England, Hedley (Anna Hedley), transplanted with this new technology to preserve the heart, becoming the first case in the United Kingdom. Hedley was diagnosed with a rare form of constrictive cardiomyopathy two years ago and collapsed several times, threatening her life at any time. She was discharged from the hospital two weeks after her surgery and was able to play field hockey, her favorite sport, a few weeks later. Her Parents were relieved that their daughter was finally free of the disease and described the moment Hadley woke up as touching, not believing that the technology had saved their daughter’s life.
After Hadley, the team has successfully transplanted five more teenagers with “revived” hearts in the past year, an encouraging achievement. It is understood that when a heart stops beating, it is damaged by lack of oxygen and is not suitable for transplantation, thus limiting a patient’s chances of finding a suitable heart. Children in the UK wait 2.5 times longer than adults for a suitable donor heart. This new technology could benefit more patients and reduce the risks associated with a non-functioning heart during surgery.
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