Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) and Royal Papworth Hospital (RPH) have collaborated to introduce a world-first paediatric heart transplant technique that has successfully expanded the donor pool and increased the number of transplants for eligible children in the UK by 50%.

The donation after circulatory death (DCD) heart transplant programme was previously only available to adults. For the first time ever, using a portable organ perfusion system called the TransMedics heart Organ Care System (OCS), the technique has now been made available for children, paving the way for six life-saving heart transplants for young patients at GOSH in 2020.

It is the biggest and most successful paediatric DCD heart transplant programme in the world.