The heart beats rhythmically, its muscles quivering, the bright red blood pulsing through its chambers. It appears vibrantly — queasily — alive. But this heart is not inside a human body. It is kept artificially beating by a state-of-the-art machine, the Organ Care System (OCS), which simulates the body’s functions and even re-oxygenates the blood — one of the latest extraordinary inventions set to revolutionise the landscape of organ transplantation.
The same system is being developed for lungs — which keeps them ‘breathing’ outside the body — and others will sustain livers and kidneys. Kept at body temperature, they are fed with blood and nutrients while their function is observed. The benefit is not just that doctors are able to assess their suitability for transplant, or that they can be preserved for longer (up to 12 hours) before being transplanted; the machines, research has shown, actually improve the quality of the organs.
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