With Heart-in-a-Box, currently under review by the U.S. Traditionally, organs are put on ice, where a heart, for example, can only stay viable for about four hours. TransMedics' Organ Care System, nicknamed Heart-in-a-Box, allows organs to live outside of bodies for a longer period of time, meaning hospitals can scout a larger geographic radius for possible donors. Staff readying for another mission at Van Nuys airport, Calif. And then because of his size, it becomes even fewer the number of organs that he can take."įortunately for Stivers, Cedar-Sinai's heart institute was hoping to broaden its donor base with the help of a new technology. And as a consequence, some places would not have listed Don because of his age. Because of that, we're able to expand who we are able to transplant. Dominic Emerson, associate surgical director of heart transplant and mechanical circulatory support in the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai, said, "We do more adult heart transplants at Cedars than any other center in the country and really the world. Stivers, a land surveyor, wasn't the typical candidate for a new heart.ĭr. "My cardiologist sent me to Cedars-Sinai, and because they couldn't repair the heart, I ended up team and they said, 'In your condition, a transplant is the way to go.'" "Then the last one, the wires had torn the tricuspid valve so badly that the heart was in such sad shape," said Stivers. On a particularly difficult day, Stivers' wife drove him four hours to a hospital in Santa Barbara, where he was diagnosed with ventricular fibrillation.įrom that point forward, he had implantable cardioverter defibrillators in his chest to help his heartbeat stay on track. When he was around 58, the California native started having problems with his energy. He didn't make it to the Olympics, but he stayed active through the years by hiking, playing softball, running, swimming and biking. Stivers went on to be a high jumper at University of California, Los Angeles. They said don't run, don't do this, but I did anyway, and I would turn blue and pass out, and my mother would revive me." And so everything I did was against doctors' orders. "Growing up, I decided I was going to overcome it and go to the Olympics and be a strong boy. "I was born with a very lousy heart," he explained. THURSDAY, Ap(HealthDay News) - A few days after his 74th birthday, Don Stivers received his dream gift - a new heart.
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