Steen said Monday he considered the operation a success and the method will increase the number of organs available for transplant. In fact, the transplanted lung worked to the very last. The patient, whose identity was not released, seemed to recuperate quite well from the beginning, and she was out of bed just a week after surgery, Steen said. But her general state of health started to deteriorate after she underwent a liver operation that was unrelated to the lung transplant, and contracted the virus. Steen said he has permission to perform eight more transplants of the same type, after which the new method will be analyzed to determine if it can pass from the research stage for use in general medical treatment.
Organs start to deteriorate as soon as the heart stops beating.
Scientists recently discovered that the lungs have a unique ability to maintain themselves for about an hour after the heart stops beating because they fill with blood saturated with oxygen and the airways fill with air.