On January 29, 2026, at the Indiana Donor Network in Indianapolis, a set of donor lungs that had already been rejected by multiple transplant centers got an unlikely second shot. Using an in‑house ex‑vivo lung perfusion system, clinicians treated the organs until a transplant team agreed to take them. The lungs were then transplanted into an Indiana man, who survived the operation.
According to WIBC, the donor died at a hospital in northeastern Indiana, and the lungs were transported to the network’s recovery center in Indianapolis. There, the team worked with Sweden‑based XVIVO and a perfusion provider from Wisconsin, running the lungs on an EVLP platform for about five hours. During that time, the organs showed clear, measurable improvement, enough for a transplant center to sign off on using them in surgery.
How EVLP revived the organs
Ex‑vivo lung perfusion (EVLP) keeps lungs functioning outside the body by pumping warm, oxygenated perfusate through them while clinicians closely track how they are working and deliver therapies aimed at reversing early damage. As the Cleveland Clinic explains, EVLP has allowed some transplant programs to turn so‑called marginal lungs into grafts that perform on par with more standard donations.
Why this matters for Indiana patients
Leaders at Indiana Donor Network say having this kind of perfusion technology in house cuts down the time between organ retrieval and assessment and widens the radius from which viable lungs can be brought in. That combination could help lower the number of lungs discarded each year. Sherry Quire, the network’s director of organ services, told WIBC that “we are committed to preserving and enhancing organ vitality outside the body so each transplant has the greatest possible opportunity to succeed,” while XVIVO’s CEO framed the effort as part of a broader push “that nobody should die waiting for a new organ.”
What's next
The network’s own newsroom and public materials highlight its recovery center and its plan to lean on machine perfusion to boost transplant rates, suggesting the Indianapolis effort could serve as a template for other organ procurement organizations. As Indiana Donor Network puts it, the investments in technology and logistics are designed to stretch each donor’s legacy as far as possible and reach patients who might otherwise spend their remaining time waiting.
