Sudbury woman only 3rd person in Canada to donate her still-beating heart with 'heart-in-a-box'
CBC
A young woman in Sudbury became the third person in Canada, and first from northern Ontario to donate her heart with new 'heart-in-a-box' technology that keeps the organ beating for hours while it's outside of the body.
Angèle Labelle died on May 9, 2024 at the age of 27 after a life in which she faced a number of health challenges.
"She had cerebral palsy. She was deaf, blind, she was epileptic, she was G-tube fed, she was non-verbal and was wheelchair-bound," said her older sister Ashley Labelle.
But despite those challenges, Labelle said her younger sister made the most of her short life.
"She just loved to be the centre of attention and we used to call her Jello Labello," she said.
Labelle said her family was surprised, but pleased to learn that despite her health challenges, Angèle's heart was healthy and could be donated.
She was able to become only the third person in Canada to participate in a program from Toronto General Hospital, in collaboration with a team from the United States, to have her still-beating heart placed in an organ care system.
WARNING| This video shows a graphic medical procedure
"The heart gets connected up to a pump which pumps blood," said Dr. Bhanu Nalla, the chief of critical care at the Health Sciences North hospital in Sudbury, where the surgery was done.
"And it looks at the parameters of the heart to see how well the heart is functioning. We can inject her heart with medication, we can pace the heart, we can defibrillate and shock the heart if it needs it."
Nalla said the technology can maintain the heart for 10 to 12 hours before it's transplanted into another person.
Before this technology Nalla said heart donors had to be medically brain dead, where their heart continued to beat after their brain shut off.
The organ care system also extends the amount of time available before the heart has to be transplanted into a recipient.
A woman in the U.S. received Angèle's heart.
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