You're helping people like Joel all across Australia.
Joel, never thought that at just 18 years old he’d find himself on the waiting list for a heart transplant, barely able to walk, let alone run, and exhausted even while resting. Joel was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) – a genetic heart condition that causes thickening of the heart walls, making it increasingly difficult for the heart to pump blood.
For people like Joel, a heart transplant is the only treatment. The greatest impediment to transplants is the availability of donor hearts.
But the ‘heart in a box’ machine helps with that. It is used with a unique solution, developed by the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, that protects the heart and allows it to be reactivated even if it stops. Read Joel's amazing story.
Before this world first discovery donor hearts had to be transplanted within 4 hours, which severely limited who could receive a transplant.
Learn more about how donors like yourself have helped save lives.
The Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land, the Gadigal of the Eora nation, on which we meet, work, and discover.
Our Western Australian laboratories pay their respect to the Whadjuk Noongar who remain as the spiritual and cultural custodians of their land.
