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Transplants from Dead Donors

Posted by michael on from the it's-alive! dept.

deran9ed writes "Swedish surgeons have for the first time successfully transplanted a lung from a dead donor with no heart beat, using a new technique that could ease the worldwide shortage of donor organs. Organs used in transplants are normally removed after the donor has been declared dead but while the heart is still beating. The lung is cooled and preserved inside the donor's body so that it can be removed 12-24 hours after the heart has stopped beating."

1 of 9 comments (clear)

  1. Heart cells beat by themselves by jeff67 · · Score: 2
    From http://howstuffworks.com/heart4.htm
    The answer lies in a special group of cells that have the ability to generate electrical activity on their own. These cells separate charged particles. Then they spontaneously leak certain charged particles into the cells. This produces electrical impuses in the [heart's natural] pacemaker cells which spread over the heart, causing it to contract. These cells do this more than once per second to produce a normal heart beat of 72 beats per minute.