Organ Care System. In an organ transplant surgery, timing is critical. Doctors drop organs into a plastic bag and put them on ice. But lungs soon stop breathing. Hearts stop beating. The organs essentially shut down and start to deteriorate. This means doctors have only about five to 10 hours to get the lung from the donor into the recipient. If the travel time is too long, the organ can’t be used and goes to waste. An Andover company known as TransMedics came up with world’s first commercial, portable, warm blood perfusion system that allows a new type of organ transplant, called a living organ transplant. This new technology, called an Organ Care System, is designed to maintain organs in a warm, functioning state outside of the body to optimize their health and allow continuous clinical evaluation. Hearts beat, lungs breathe, kidneys produce urine and livers produce bile. The device is currently not FDA approved but is undergoing clinical testing.
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