In a world first, doctors at St Vincent’s Hospital have managed to successfully transplant a heart that had stopped beating for 20 minutes.

The heart was brought back to life, then placed on a machine, before it was injected with a unique preservation solution – developed by the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute.

The Preservation Solution:

• Reduces the amount of damage to the heart
• Makes the heart more resilient to transplantation
• Reduces the number of heart muscle cells that die
• Improves heart function when it is restarted
• Limits damage from a lack of oxygen
• The preservation solution took 12 years to perfect

To read more about this blockbuster breakthrough, click here.