By: Tina Wu

A full hour after the pigs died, scientists used a special gadget called OrganEX to revive them. It was developed by a Yale research team to help organisms with no pulse regain one. Other pulseless pigs used ECMO life-support technology, but results showed OrganEX working better.

What is OrganEX?

OrganEX is a system that injects fluid into organs. This system helps the pigs to stay alive, rather than actually bringing them back from the dead. This is because cells die more slowly than many believe they do. In order for something to be completely dead, all parts of the organism must be completely shut down.

Nathan Emmerich, a bioethicist working at the Australian National University, said “What research like this suggests is that death does not occur at a particular time.” This is why the pigs were able to get their pulses back an hour after they stopped.

Surprisingly, the organs of the “zombie” pigs were almost identical to normal pig organs. A neuroscientist at the Yale School of Medicine, Zvonimir Vrselja, says that “under the microscope, it was difficult to tell the difference between a healthy organ and one which had been treated with OrganEX technology after death.”

Another shocking discovery was reported by Nenad Sestan, who wrote about the team’s conclusions. He described impulsive action in the heads and necks of the pigs that were on OrganEX. This finding startled the researchers in a good way, as this shows signs of OrganEX working.

Scientists cannot bring all people back just yet, Emmerich says. “The fruits of this research are unlikely to enable us to revive just anyone but may help us save a limited number of people in certain circumstances.”