A Major Scientific Breakthrough Could Save The Lives Of People Who Need Organs

Associated Press

One of the biggest problems with organ donation is availability. People will sit on waiting lists for months before getting the organ they need to survive.

Now the BBC is reporting a potentially huge scientific breakthrough.

It's a technique coined "supercooling." Usually when an organ is removed from a person's body it immediately begins to deteriorate. This new technique may be able to slow down that process.

Right now scientists have tested animals and been able to preserve usable organs for 3 days. That's a huge improvement over the 24 hours we can preserve organs now.

Scientists say this technology has the potential to add more organs to the available pool, as many are rejected because they don't survive long enough to make it to their target patient.

One of the researchers also spoke to the BBC about how supercooling could lead to sharing organs all over the world, saying, "that would lead to better donor matching, which would reduce-long term organ rejection and complications, which is one of the major issues in organ transplant."