How long does a heart transplant take?
Surgery usually takes about four hours — longer if there are complications during the procedure. The surgeon will open the chest cavity and connect the patient to a heart-lung bypass machine to keep oxygenated blood flowing throughout their body. The old heart is removed, and the donor heart is sewn into place. The new heart often starts beating when blood flow is restored. Sometimes an electric shock is needed to make the muscle fibers contract in a coordinated manner. Your cousin will have some pain after the surgery, which will be treated with medications. He'll also have a ventilator to help him breathe and tubes in his chest to drain fluids from around his lungs and heart. Recovery often involves a one- to two-week hospital stay and about three months of frequent monitoring by the transplant team. Your cousin is one of the lucky few that gets a heart transplant in time. He's truly blessed. Best Wishes to the both of you!! =)
Can a dog get a heart transplant?
The answer is no! Think about where and how do you get hearts for transplant in humans. It is not like kidneys where someone voluntarily donated his organ when alive! Someone has to die to give the other person a heart! It is a gift of life.People who die (head injury brain death) in road accidents and by homicides are the ones who donate their hearts as per their and their family wishes.How many dogs do you know die of gunshot or get head injury in road accidents.. Almost none.. So there is no system of “transferring” heart rapidly from one dog to another and it is unlikely that there even will be.
What happens in a heart transplant?
That's what bypass machines are for! They stop your heart when you have open heart surgery too. It's actually not that unusual for doctors to deliberately stop then re-start someone's heart - they do it in the ED to correct a rapid or abnormal heartbeat too. When someone is having a heart transplant, they cool your body temperature right down so your body doesn't need as much oxygen anyway but then they hook you up to a heart-lung bypass machine (cardio-pulmonary bypass machine, CBM). The surgeon attaches special tubing to a large vein (like starting a very large IV) that allows oxygen-depleted blood to leave your body and travel to the CBM. The machine then oxygenates the blood and returns it to the body through a second tube, also attached to the body but this one goes into an artery. The constant pumping of the machine then pushes the oxygenated blood through the body, much like the heart does. It's just like they're bridging the gap between your old heart and the new transplanted heart with an artificial, mechanical heart that's outside of your body. Yes, they have to cut out your old heart. If, like me, the patient has already had lots of heart surgery, that can be a mammoth task in itself cuz of the build up of scar tissue. Usually the heart is being replaced because it is not working any more so normally the removed heart just gets discarded (incinerated) but there is also something called a "domino transplant" which is where they do a heart and lung transplant on one patient, typically a teen who's got cystic fibrosis (apparently people do better after a heart and lung transplant than just a lung transplant) and then they take that person's old heart and transplant it on into a second patient who just needs a new heart. Kathleen, That's interesting that you can have a kidney transplant and still keep your own kidneys (??in the US). Here in the UK, in my hospital at least (Great Ormond Street) kidney patients have to have both their own kidneys removed before they can even go on to the transplant list for a new kidney. I don't know why. ??different places = different transplant services = different policies I guess.
How much does it cost to have a heart transplant?
It is amazing that transplanting an organ can cost over 1 million dollars. Just being in the hospital for it can be $100,000. Then all the follow up appointments (hopefully you've met your deductable) can range from 3 times a week for the first 2 weeks, then 2 times a week for 2 weeks, etc. And let's not forget about the medication that you need to support the new organ, which the insurance companies always fight with us about. Just the medication alone can be over $1,000 a month. One cool thing about a kidney transplant is that they sew the old kidney to the wall of your insides and don't take it out. It can sometimes come undone and float. Creepy and yes I have seen it happen
If you get a heart transplant, do your feelings change?
No!!! but if a person gets a BRAIN transplants that when he/ she dont get bothered or remember the break up hahahha.. the heart doesnt hold memories its just a muscle that beats!!!!!
Am I going to fall out of love after my heart transplant?
I've actually heard a story of a guy who got a heart transplant...after the surgery the patient started muttering some names and things related to the pepole mentioned..the doctors or nurses asked his family if they knew what he was talking about and they said they don't know...they then asked the family of the heart donor person & they knew exactly who those people were etc This goes to show that the heart does have emotions, feelings etc I think maybe a part of the love could still be remembered in your head...don't worry about it!! Sorry if this story scared you, I just felt like you needed to know this