HEARTS can now be kept beating outside the body for nearly two days. The
portable device that keeps them alive promises to buy precious time for
transporting organs and preparing for transplant operations.
At the moment, donated organs are kept in an icebox while they are being
transported. A heart only survives for four to six hours in these conditions,
while kidneys and livers last for up to 12 hours. But Waleed Hassanein and his
colleagues at TransMedics of Woburn, Massachusetts, have now kept animal hearts
working for up to 36 hours, and kidneys and livers for up to 48…
