A heart transplant is a surgery that replaces your heart with one from an organ donor. This is only used when you are too sick to survive without a transplant and only if you meet strict criteria. Thanks to advances in modern medicine, this procedure has a high success rate, and people live years or even decades after this procedure.
Here’s how you can prepare for a heart transplant surgery –
If your doctor recommends a heart transplant, you can either ask for his reference or locate one center on your own.
Once you decide on a center, they will evaluate you to see if you’re eligible for the surgery.
If the transplant center medical team determines that you’re a good candidate for a heart transplant, the center will put you on a waiting list.
While you’re on the waiting list, your medical team will monitor your heart and other organs and adjust your treatment as necessary.
If medical therapy fails to support your vital organs as you wait for a donor heart, your doctors might recommend that you have a device (VADs) implanted to support your heart while you wait for a donor organ.
The devices are also referred to as bridges to transplantation because they gain you some time to wait until a donor heart is available.
You’re likely to remain in the hospital for a week or two.
After you are discharged from the hospital, your transplant team will keep a check on you at your outpatient transplant center.
Let your transplant team know if you notice any signs or symptoms of rejection or infection.
To determine whether your body is rejecting the transplanted heart, you’ll have frequent heart biopsies in the first few months after heart transplantation. This is when rejection is most likely to occur.
You will also need to make several long-term adjustments like –
Taking immunosuppressants
Managing medications, therapies and a lifelong care plan
Living a disciplined lifestyle
Attend cardiac rehabilitation
Revocery for a heart transplant patient may take years.
