A heart surgery carried out in east China has been a success despite the fact that the organ had been removed from the donor's body for about seven hours already. According to experts, a heart cannot be revived once it has been out of the body for more than six hours.

The 24-year-old recipient, who was only identified with his surname Guan, reportedly hails from Fuzhou, the capital of east China's Fujian Province. Guan was in dire need of a heart transplant as he suffered from a severe blood clot in his heart. The best organ that matched his was located in the northern part of the province.

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Physicians since pronounced the donor brain dead, however, he was being sustained by a respirator. On Dec. 3, the recipient's medical doctors went to north China at 6:00 PM to get the donor's organ.

"The donor's heart had stopped beating for 10 minutes when we arrived around 9 PM," Huang Xueshan, Guan's surgeon, said. "But we managed to extract the heart in two minutes."

The team rushed back to Fuzhou and started performing the surgerical procedure by midnight. The transplant lasted for approximately two hours. Initially, surgeons did not find any signs that the heart was beating. However, miraculously, by 4 AM, that is, seven hours the organ was taken out from the donor's body, it started beating in Guan's body.

Dr. Huang admitted that using a heart that has already been static and travelled over a long distance is a rare instance. But experts believe that the donor's young age and sturdy heart contributed to the success of the operation.

The operation allegedly cost between 150,000 and 200,000 yuan. The patient will reportedly need to take anti-rejection medications or immunosuppressants that may cost from 2,000 to 3,000 yuan every month.

There are approximately 3 million Chinese patients awaiting heart transplant. Unfortunately, only about 250 of them undergo surgery each year.

Tagsorgan transplant, heart transplant, major operation, technology, Fujian Province, immunosuppresants