In recent years, aviation has become one of the greatest allies in the successful transport of organs destined for transplantation. Given this importance, Air made history for being the first company to transport a heart for transplant on a long-haul commercial flight.
The special feat ended up being successful after 12 hours of preservation on board a commercial flight, being the first time that a heart transport was carried out after transporting a donor heart across the Atlantic Ocean, as published in the article in the magazine doctor The Lancet.
[Special transport] For the first time, a heart which had been transported in the cabin of an #Air flight was successfully transplanted after 12 hours of preservation. This marks a substantial advancement in organ transplantation.
— Air Newsroom (@AFnewsroom) March 26, 2024
The heart transplant took place at the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, Sorbonne University, in Paris, , in January 2024. The donor, located in the French Antilles, was a 48-year-old man, declared brain dead 3 days after an intracerebral injury .
To preserve the heart for a long period, it was necessary to transport the organ in a special Heart Assist Transport box, a module capable of keeping the heart fresh and oxygenated throughout the journey.
The heart was transplanted into a 70-year-old man with ischemic cardiomyopathy and chronic renal failure, a disease responsible for causing inflammation in the heart muscle, resulting in the enlargement and weakening of the heart, thus impairing its ability to pump blood.
This transplant marks the first case of a donated heart crossing the Atlantic, after traveling a distance of 6.750 km from the French West Indies to Paris, a previously unimaginable feat in organ transplantation.
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