In a breakthrough, a team of doctors, including an Indian-origin surgeon, on Friday said they have successfully performed the world’s first heart transplant in Australia using a “dead heart”, a major development that could save many lives.
The procedure, using hearts that had stopped beating, has been described as a “paradigm shift” that will herald a major increase in the pool of hearts available for transplantation.
It is predicted the breakthrough will save the lives of 30 per cent more heart transplant patients.
Until now, transplant units have relied solely on still- beating donor hearts from brain-dead patients.
But the team at the lung transplant unit of St Vincent’s Hospital here announced they had transplanted three heart failure patients using donor hearts that had stopped beating for 20 minutes.
The first patient who received a heart Michelle Gribilas said she felt a decade younger and was now a “different person”.