Transplant surgeons have started using a device that allows them to “reanimate” hearts from people who have recently died, and use the organs to save others.
The “heart in a box” is a wheeled cart with an oxygen supply, a sterile chamber, and tubing to clamp onto a donor heart and keep it fed with blood and nutrients. Doctors say it may extend the time a heart can last outside the body and is letting them recover hearts from donors who haven’t been eligible before.