Toronto hospital performs first Canadian heart transplant after circulatory death

In a groundbreaking first for Canada, surgeons at Toronto’s University Health Network (UHN) have successfully completed a heart transplant using a donor whose heart had stopped beating, a technique known as donation after circulatory death.

Unlike traditional heart transplants that use organs from brain-dead donors whose hearts continue to beat, this new approach recovers hearts after life support is withdrawn, and the heart has stopped beating.

In early September, a team at UHN’s Toronto General Hospital transplanted a heart that had stopped beating after life support was withdrawn.

Dr. Ali Rabi, the cardiac surgeon at UHN’s Peter Munk Cardiac Centre who led the surgery, said, “Before, we only used hearts from brain-dead donors whose hearts were still beating. Now, we can use hearts