MURRAY—A new state-of-the-art organ saving device being used by Intermountain Health’s Transplant Program has the potential to save more patients’ lives who are waiting for liver transplants that might otherwise die before their name comes up. Intermountain is the first in the state to use the device.

The OrganOx is a liver pump that keeps the organ in a near-physiological state outside the body, providing continuous perfusion of oxygenated blood, medication and nutrients at normal body temperature, mimicking the conditions inside the body, according to Intermountain. 

“This will increase access to organs that would not previously be used because we thought it was too damaged,” said Dr. Jean Botha, medical director of Intermountain Health’s abdominal transplant program and Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital’s pediatric transplant program. “The pump allows us to assess the viability and we can see if this organ is likely to function or not before we transplant it.”

The waiting list at Intermountain is down to 22 days so from the time patients get on the waiting list to the time they get transplanted is a mere three weeks, he said. “It’s this kind of technology that has allowed us to transplant patients faster and sooner. Because we can transplant patients sooner, that means the risk of dying on a waiting list is markedly reduced.”

Botha said that in addition it allows them to slow things down. “That means we don’t have to rush to get an organ. We’re not sitting on the East Coast. We’re sitting in the Mountain West where it’s a huge geographic region that we’re covering. Now patients who don’t live close to our transplant center, will have access when previously they didn’t have access to this kind of transplantation who were marginalized because of where they lived.”

Sophie Hansen, a 22-year-old from Bountiful is a recipient of a liver using this innovative technology at Intermountain Medical Center in Murray. 

“My journey with liver disease started when I was 3 years old,” said Hansen. “I was diagnosed with primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) which is a chronic, incurable disease that slowly damages the liver’s bile ducts causing scarring.”

Hansen said by the time she was 11 years old the disease had progressed to the point that she was put on the liver transplant waiting list. “I waited a really long time. I waited over four years this first time around until I received a call for an organ and I received my first organ when I was 15 years old.”

This organ allowed her to live an amazing life as a teenager, she said. “I was able to graduate from high school and start college at the University of Utah. I was able to travel all around the world and I was able to start my job as a researcher in the transplant department at Primary Children’s.”

Last year her liver numbers started increasing. “I was diagnosed with recurrent PSC and even though I had an amazing team this disease is really hard to treat so it progressed very quickly and aggressively. I ended up being placed back on the waiting list in December.”

Hansen thought it was going to be a long wait again. “But 33 days later, I got a call that an organ was available.”

However, it was a donation after circulatory death (DCD) liver. “It was scary to accept anything but a perfect organ, but I was super excited knowing about the technology being used.”

The liver was on the pump overnight and they were able to track the organ and make sure it was functioning well, Hansen said. “We received the update that the liver looked perfect. So we proceeded with a transplant and the surgery went well.”

Just two weeks later Hansen said she went to Colorado to present her latest research paper for school. “Last month I went to Mexico.” 

Intermountain Health’s Transplant Program has used the device 35 times for liver transplantation since the first use of the OrganOx on Dec. 15, 2023. The OrganOx is currently housed at Intermountain Medical Center in Murray. In the future, Botha said it’s designed to be portable to take to a donor’s operating room and go to different transplant centers.

“Intermountain Health continues to strive to offer this lifesaving treatment to as many people as possible across the country and in so doing, is helping them live their healthiest lives possible,” he said. “This is changing the face of transplantation. I’ve been a surgeon for 25 years. This technology gives us a whole new landscape. It’s a super time to be in transplant – it can change lives.”