article_snippet: Surgeons have carried out UKUK’s first transplant of a non-beating heart.
article_snippet: Donor hearts are usually from people who are brain-stem dead, but whose hearts are still beating.
article_snippet: Currently not everyone who needs a heart transplant can have one due to there not being enough suitable ones available.
article_snippet: However, it is hoped that by using non-beating hearts, the number of people able to have heart transplants could increase by  up to 25 per cent in the UK alone, saving hundreds of lives.
article_snippet: Last year, surgeons in Australia performed the world’s first transplant using a non-beating heart.
article_snippet: Consultant surgeon Stephen Large, who led the Papworth transplant team, said: ‘The use of this group of donor hearts could increase heart transplantation by up to 25 per cent in the UK alone.
article_snippet: There have been 171 heart transplant in the past 12 months in the UK.
article_snippet: Non-beating-heart donors provide kidneys, livers and other organs, but until now it has not been possible to use the heart because of concerns it would suffer damage.
article_snippet: By enabling the safe use of this kind of donor hearts, we could significantly increase the total number of heart transplants each year, saving hundreds of lives.
article_snippet: People who previously would not get a heart transplant will now be able to have People who previously would not get a heart transplant.
article_snippet: More than 250 patients in Britain are on the waiting list for heart transplants, and around 900,000 people in the UK are living with heart failure, according to the British Heart Foundation.
highlights_snippet: Surgeons successfully carried out UK's first non-beating heart transplant .
  
highlights_snippet: New procedure could increase heart transplants by up to 25 per cent in UK .