Chinese doctors are placing an artificial heart into the patient body. Photo: cnsphoto

Talk about a brave heart - a donated heart was alive and pumping Monday after surviving a crash of the helicopter transporting the organ and then falling off the hands of a medical worker.

The aircraft had flown from a hospital in southern California with the donor's heart for a transplant and crashed for unknown reasons on the USC hospital helipad.

Video footage showed fire crews retrieving the organ and handing it over to a medical worker, who then tripped on a metal plate and fell over as another employee rushed to pick up the precious package.

A hospital spokesperson told AFP that the organ was successfully transplanted, and the patient was doing well.

AFP