In terms of medical breakthroughs, it’s heart-stopping — or rather, heart-reviving — news.
Toronto General Hospital performed in early September the first Canadian heart transplant after the donor’s heart stopped beating.
Traditionally, heart transplants have only been possible from brain-dead donors while the heart continues to beat and get oxygen.
This new procedure — via what’s called death by circulatory criteria (DCC) — involves patients who have no chance of neurological recovery. Once life support is withdrawn with the family’s permission, the heart stops beating, death is confirmed and organs are promptly recovered.
“In the old way in the brain-dead donor, the brain is dead, the heart is still beating,” said Dr. Seyed Alireza Rabi, who led the University Health Network’s mult