The demand for organ transplants has prompted an innovative procedure that reanimates a dead body. A North Carolina surgeon worries that when it’s done incorrectly, donors might feel pain in their last moments.
Daylight hadn’t yet broken, and the Chapel Hill operating room was buzzing. Nurses were opening tools and surgeons chatted while scrubbing in.
They were waiting for a 37-year-old man to die.
After a moment of honor, the clinical team withdrew life support as transplant surgeons lingered in a neighboring room. After his heart stopped, everyone waited another five minutes to make sure it didn’t naturally restart before the transplant team dove in.
The heart surgeons were hustling. Every minute counts when organs are deprived of oxygen. Claire Morgan, another surgeon, was there for the kidneys.
She remembers feeling curious and comfortable. The heart surgeons from Vanderbilt Health in Tennessee were skilled and eager to demonstrate a new organ procurement technique. Morgan, who was working for the organ procurement organization HonorBridge, believes it was the first time the procedure had been used in North Carolina, and she was keen to learn more.
Called normothermic regional perfusion, or NRP, the technique involves hooking an organ donor up to equipment that enriches blood with oxygen. This machinery was designed to save patients’ lives, but for an organ donor, it can be used to restore blood flow into their torso. The apparatus prompts the donor’s heart to pump...
An external review was commissioned after misconduct claims Many people have been questioning if MAFS UK even has a future following the news in the last couple of days. Earlier this week it was a...