World’s first-ever heart transplant where the heart never stops
New Delhi, April 19, 2025.In a truly groundbreaking moment for medicine, doctors in Taiwan have pulled off a world-first: a heart transplant in which the donor heart never stopped beating, even for a second. That’s right, the heart kept pumping throughout the entire process, making it the first zero-ischemic-time heart transplant in history.Usually, during a transplant, the heart is stopped, taken out, stored in a cold container, and then restarted inside the recipient. This pause, known as ‘ischemic time,’ can damage the heart muscle due to a lack of oxygen.But this new technique avoids all that by keeping the heart alive and pumping throughout the surgery
