Times have changed in how patients who are potential donors are considered to be dead and therefore able to be organ donors.
It used to be that you had to be brain dead, with no signs of brain activity, cardiac – heart – death wasn’t in the equation. This has changed an now those who are heart dead can be organ donors but the teams have to move fast for the organs to be viable.
I came across this story this morning of two families, two infants, and two sad stories. In a nutshell, one baby can’t live. She goes into cardiac …read more

So many stories about transplants really tug at your heart, but ones that include children and babies can be incredibly poignant. When I put out an appeal to speak to people about organ transplants, I was contacted by Ed Weir. He told me his story of their 1-month-old daughter, Rachel. Rachel died of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) 22 years ago. Most often when a child dies of SIDS, the child is discovered too late for their organs to be used in transplantation. In this case, Rachel’s death was discovered immediately. And because of that, many other children were saved …read more

The first successful beating-heart transplant has been carried out in the UK. The heart was kept alive and beating outside the body for five hours, one hour longer than the usual viable time period for non-beating donor hearts. The 58-year-old organ recipient is doing well one week after the operation.
Why is keeping the donor heart beating an important development?

The number of organs available for transplant will increase.
The number of potential recipients could be broadened.
Surgeons will have the opportunity to assess the heart and test it for existing diseases.
More extensive tissue matching may reduce the risk of …read more