From beating, this patient's heart started again.
In his body, the brand new organ was implanted to him at the last minute.
Because if the transplant is in any case a race against time, this time it was against all time.
An incredible story of fog almost undermined it and forced the teams to do what had never been before: make a heart travel by TGV to lead it to a new life.
At the start of the week - organ donation being anonymous in France, the exact dates of the operation and the place where the heart was transplanted cannot be disclosed - a thick fog is falling over the Nancy region. .
"He held in a dense and continuous way more than thirty hours in a row", points Etienne Kapikian, Météo France.
From a forecaster's memory, we have to go back to 1983 to have such a cloudy horizon here.
While Lorraine is covered with a white veil, at Nancy hospital, a man dies, and after discussion with his family, the gift of his heart is decided.
4 hours to transplant the organ
A few hundred kilometers away, hope is reborn for a very sick recipient.
"But here we are, we are in the deep night and there is this abominable fog which prevents any plane or any medical helicopter from flying towards Nancy", summarizes Professor François Kerbaul, director of harvesting and transplantation at the Agency. of Biomedicine.
The sky is the space usually used to secure this fragile, precious organ, which must reach its new envelope within four hours of its removal.
The teams are considering the route, but it is therefore impossible to meet the deadlines.
Last year, 425 heart transplants were performed in France.
But there, doubt sets in.
“We came close to the loss of this organ, still breathes Professor Gérard Audibert, head of the anesthesia-intensive care unit at the Nancy University Hospital.
Tell yourself that there is nothing more heartbreaking, more horrifying than having to give up a vital intervention because of logistical problems, or weather!
But the saying is right, the heart has its reasons which reason does not know.
An incessant ballet then takes place between the local medical teams and the Biomedicine Agency to find "an innovative solution", says Professor Audibert.
The whole thing is tried: if the air and the road are impassable, the rails remain!
In the TGV driver's cabin
After all, TGVs are well used to transport some 870 kidneys per year.
Except that they can be transplanted up to eighteen hours after their donation.
Fighting commotion, night phone calls to the SNCF, to transporters… It is true, the heart will take the train.
"The", because there is only one at dawn, which serves, without connection, the city where he is expected.
"The stake is enormous: the teams cannot take too early at the risk of damaging the organ, nor make it miss the train", summarizes François Kerbaul.
Contrary to practice, it is Nancy who takes the sample and takes the organ to the station.
He travels, ultra-conditioned, next to the driver, then is transported under police escort to his destination hospital where the patient is already in the operating theater.
From now on, another interior journey awaits him.
Offer life.
“Our greatest wish now, notes Professor Kerbaul, is that this unexpected operation be crowned with all success.
"