New donor project wishes to gain lungs after cardiac deaths

Surgical procedure.Photo: Gorm Kallestad / SCANPIX

The pilot project at Oslo University wants to use a new donor method of gaining access to several agencies in Norway.

In 2014, Oslo University began a pilot project for the use of organs from patients who still had blood circulation to the brain, but who the doctors were unable to treat because of severe head injuries.

VG newspaper reported that the transplant coordinator at the Oslo University hospital, Stein Foss, and the person responsible for organ donorship at Ullevål Hospital, Dag Wendelbo Sørensen, were working to expand the project from applying only to
kidneys, corneas and heart valves, to include lungs.

Organ donorship usually comes from patients who no longer have blood circulation to the brain, but where the heart is still beating. Very few people die in this way, which is why the pilot project is working to extract functional organs from patients who have demonstrated cardiac or respiratory arrest.

 

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today