Amazing video shows donor organ beating OUTSIDE the body as pioneering 'Heart In a Box' technology allows life-saving transplant for young father

  • Lee Hall was on ‘borrowed time’ after his mechanical heart began to fail
  • The 26-year-old leapt at the chance for to receive non-beating heart
  • Pioneering technology keeps heart beating until moment of transplant 
  • Amazing clip shows revolutionary box that saved Lee's life in action

By Khaleda Rahman For Mailonline

Published: 06:10 EST, 30 August 2015 | Updated: 11:29 EST, 30 August 2015

This amazing video shows the revolutionary 'Heart in a Box' technology that keeps a donor organ pumping until the moment of transplant in action. 

Lee Hall, 26, was on ‘borrowed time’ after the mechanical heart that had kept him alive for five years began to fail.

But the young father's life was saved after he received a transplant thanks to the pioneering technology that keeps a heart pumping outside the body.  

Lee Hall, pictured with wife Danyelle, 23, and son Hayden, was on ‘borrowed time’ after the mechanical heart that had kept him alive for five years began to fail

Lee Hall, pictured with wife Danyelle, 23, and son Hayden, was on ‘borrowed time’ after the mechanical heart that had kept him alive for five years began to fail

Thanks to the surgery, Lee – who was one of the first patients to benefit from the breakthrough - can enjoy life with his wife and baby son without the worry of charging his mechanical heart every day.

Lee, from Illogan in Cornwall, said: ‘It was very much touch and go for me and the fact that my heart was retrieved and kept alive by the box may well have been the difference between be dying and surviving.’

He added: ‘The doctors told me the heart was coming from a different to normal source and that it would be revived in a ‘box of tricks’.

‘I said I didn’t care as long as it allowed me to see my son again.’

Although he wasn’t able to see his one-year-old son Hayden for months while being cared for at London’s Harefield Hospital, Lee has now been able to come to home to him and his wife Danyelle despite only having the operation in June.

‘I’m looking forward to kicking a ball around with him and it’s a huge relief not having the prospect of a transplant hanging over me anymore,’ he added. 

Lee Hall (pictured with wife Danyelle and baby son Hayden) leapt at the chance to recieve non-beating heart

Lee Hall (pictured with wife Danyelle and baby son Hayden) leapt at the chance to recieve non-beating heart

The pioneering technology can use a heart that hs stopped and keep it beating until the moment of transplant

The pioneering technology can use a heart that hs stopped and keep it beating until the moment of transplant

Mr Hall, 26, said 'it was touch and go' but he did not care as long as he could see his one-year-old  grow up

Mr Hall, 26, said 'it was touch and go' but he did not care as long as he could see his one-year-old  grow up

Mr Hall developed heart failure at 14 which was linked to chemotherapy he underwent a small child to treat leukaemia.

Initially drugs improved his heart's function, but at 20 he became frequently breathless and tired at work.

He was referred to Harefield and fitted with a left ventricular assist device (LVAD), a mechanical heart pump often used to keep patients alive and enable them to leave hospital while they wait for a transplant.

Mr Hall remained in relatively good health for five years, however, earlier this year he was put on the urgent transplant list as his health deteriorated.

He leapt at the chance to receive a non-beating heart when asked.

He said: 'I had previously read about this type of donated heart online so I was very happy to have one.

'A couple of days later a suitable non-beating heart became available and I had the transplant.

'I'm grateful that I've been cared for at Harefield where this type of heart transplant is possible - without it I'd probably still be waiting.

It was very much touch and go for me and the fact that my heart was retrieved and kept alive by the box may well have been the difference between be dying and surviving 

'It is hard to accept that someone has died for you to carry on living and I'd like to thank my donor and their family for making this possible.'  

Dr Chris Bowles, who specialises in transplant technology at Harefield, explained that when Lee’s electric-assisted heart failed, doctors ‘battled to keep him alive’ until a donor heart became available.

Previously, all donated organs in the UK were from those declared brain dead, but who still had blood pumping around their bodies. 

They are kept chilled on ice and must be transplanted within four hours before they are restarted by doctors.

And while Lee’s donor’s unbeating heart would previously have been rejected, it was kept warm and beating as it travelled to London.

Now, with the ‘heart in a box’ technology, patients whose hearts have stopped beating can be used as long as they are removed within half an hour of their death.

The technology can keep donor hearts pumping and viable for twice as long – eight hours - as in an ice box.

Dr Bowles said: ‘Lee was on borrowed time. His electrical assist heart was causing serious complications.

‘He may well not have survived had we not been able to use the box to retrieve a heart we couldn’t have used previously.’

André Simon, director of transplantation at Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust, said the Organ Care System means many more lives can be saved.

He believes the technology could mean an extra 100 transplant operations can be performed across the country.

Currently, not everyone who needs a heart transplant is able to receive one as there are not enough suitable organs available.

‘The use of non-beating hearts in transplantation is a very exciting development that will ultimately help us save more lives,’ he said.

'It provides new hope to patients who are desperately waiting for a heart transplant. '

WHAT IS A 'HEART IN A BOX' TRANSPLANT?

Previously, all donated organs in the UK are from those declared brain dead, but who still have blood pumping around their bodies.

Now, doctors have developed a new method of organ retrieval - which has only been carried out a small number of times in the UK - which means surgeons can consider using hearts that have actually stopped beating in transplants.

The heart must be resuscitated by pumping warm oxygenated blood through the heart muscle. 

Organ retrieval technology, known as the Organ Care System (OCS) is used.

The OCS, sometimes referred to as 'heart in a box', allows doctors to maintain and assess organ function and suitability for transplantation.

The technology means a donor heart can be maintained for up to eight hours outside the body, compared with a maximum of three to four hours when using the traditional method of ice preservation.

Therefore, organs can be retrieved from further afield, increasing the chance of recipients receiving a life-saving transplant.

Dr Bowles, who specialises in transplant technology at London's Harefield Hospital, said: 'The box has two jobs. It keeps a heart beating instead of it being put on ice until it is restarted in a recipient. Research shows that hearts kept beating do better.

'Secondly, it now allows to use hearts on non beating donors because these hearts can be got beating again in the box on their way to the donor. 

'Being able to use these hearts alone will increase the number of transplants by 30 per cent.'

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