The Portable Organ Care System (OCS) is the size of a small shopping cart. Inside, the major blood vessels of a donor liver connect to tubes that infuse the organ with a blood supply. The liver, as though it had never left the donor, makes bile and processes medications to the whooshing “pulse” of the blood circulating through the organ.

Malcolm MacConmara, M.D., is the principal investigator in an international clinical trial to test the effectiveness of the OCS in preserving and assessing donor livers for transplantation. Dr. MacConmara and his team can check the functionality of the liver before transporting it to the recipient, and even have the ability to check the liver again during transport.

Normally, donor organs are transported to recipients using a cold storage device, which severely limits how far the organ can travel. There is also the risk that an organ will arrive in a non-viable condition. The OCS increases the acceptable geographic area for donors and allows the transport team to determine viability on the spot, before the organ is transported to the recipient.

On Saturday, June 16, Dr. MacConmara and the transplant team successfully transplanted a donor liver into patient Gregory Nielsen using the OCS. Saturday’s success is another step in establishing a new standard of care in transplant surgery – one that will open up possible donor organs to recipients who were out of reach without the OCS.

Mr. Nielsen’s body tolerated the transplant surgery so well that he was removed from the ventilator at the end of the procedure. He continued to make rapid progress and was sent home just three days after his surgery.

“The surgeons told me I’m setting a record,” Mr. Nielsen said. “My blood work is normal and I have energy again. Now I’m awake at 5 a.m. and stay up until midnight. Before the surgery, I couldn’t walk much at all. Now I walk 45 minutes every morning. It’s like a miracle.”

The OCS is produced by TransMedics, which is funding the trial.