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

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