Researchers say a new method for heart transplants could increase the number of available organs and save more lives. Currently, most transplanted hearts come from donors who have been declared brain dead. This means the person no longer has signs of brain function after suffering a serious injury. In a brain death, machines can keep the body breathing and can provide oxygen to organs until they can be recovered and put on ice. But the new method would take hearts from medical cases known as circulatory deaths. These cases are also known as donation after circulatory death, or DCD. Circulatory deaths happen when a person has a nonsurvivable brain injury, but still has some brain function. In these cases, family members can decide to withdraw all life support measures. This means organs go without oxygen for a time before they can be recovered. Currently, kidneys and some other organs are taken from people suffering circulatory deaths. But doctors have resisted using hearts because of possible organ damage from a lack of oxygen. A new study suggests that hearts might also be recoverable from cases of circulatory deaths.