Overview
- The donor heart was connected to an OCS Heart perfusion device in Athens, restarted ex vivo, and was not stopped during transport or implantation, for a total of about eight hours.
- A Molinette retrieval team flew by private jet, performed the midnight procurement, and delivered the organ to Turin where the recipient was on extracorporeal circulation with the diseased heart already explanted.
- Surgeons implanted the organ while it was beating by linking it directly to the patient's extracorporeal circulation, avoiding the ischemia associated with traditional cold storage.
- The recipient, a 65‑year‑old man with severe post‑infarction dilated cardiomyopathy, had a regular postoperative course and was moved from intensive care to a standard ward within days.
- Hospital leaders described the case as unprecedented in Italy, while ANSA notes the country previously pioneered a similar always‑beating heart transplant in Padua last year.