Toronto’s Historic Heart Transplant: A Breakthrough in Donation After Circulatory Criteria

Back to beating: Toronto hospital performs heart transplant with heart that stopped

Toronto General Hospital carried out Canada’s first donation-after-circulatory-criteria (DCC) heart transplant, UHN reports. In DCC, a heart from a patient who has died (not brain-dead) is recovered after a brief oxygen interruption and transplanted under strict criteria. The recipient is recovering well, and officials say the procedure could expand the donor pool by about 30%. DCC has been used for lungs, kidneys and liver in Canada; this is the first heart case. At end-2024, 155 adults and 29 children awaited transplants. Health Minister Sylvia Jones called it a historic milestone.