Italy has performed the world's first heart transplants from COVID-positive donors to virus-negative recipients in Bologna and Rome, sources said Thursday.
A 64-year-old man got a new heart at Bologna's Sant'Orsola Hospital and a 15-year-old boy received one at Rome's Bambino Gesù Hospital.
The recipients did not get COVID after the transplants, hospital sources said.
The man got his heart at the end of April and the boy his in mid-May.
The recipients suffered from very serious and potentially life-threatening heart conditions.
They benefitted from an exemption for the two hospitals granted by the national transplant centre (CNT), which has banned other transplants from COVID-positive donors.
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