Papworth Hospital pioneers transplants of 50 non-beating hearts

A Cambridge hospital has become the first in the world to perform 50 heart transplant operations using non-beating donor organs.

Royal Papworth Hospital completed the operations in October, offering hope to those on the transplant waiting list.

Previously, surgeons could only transplant the still-beating heart of a donor whose brain had died.

However, Pedro Catarino, clinical lead for transplantation at the hospital said it’s now possible for a heart to be "reanimated" for transplant up to 30 minutes after it has stopped pumping.

The first transplant of its kind was completed in Australia in 2014, and the first in Europe was at the Royal Papworth in 2015.