Everything you wanted to know about heart transplant surgery
Heart diseases are seen very common not only in India but in the whole world because of the change in lifestyle of people, eating habits, work stress and many other reasons. Millions of people suffer from mild to severe heart problems where some of them get treated easily while some have to lose their lives. During severe heart ailments, if best heart treatment in India is followed, the expert doctors recommend heart transplant surgery which has been proved to save a lot of life during severe heart complications because of its success rate.
When it comes to heart transplant surgery, it is not an easy process and becomes very difficult not only for the patients themself but for the people attached to them. So, in case somebody who is close to you has to go through a heart transplant surgery, there are some ways by which you can be prepared and ready so that things do not feel heavy to you.
Need for a heart transplant
A heart transplant is a process where a failing or dead heart is replaced with a healthy heart. Doctors are forced to perform this transplant only when no other therapy can repair the damage to the heart. After that, a donor gives the heart to replace the lost one. A deceased person or a person with brain impairment can serve as the donor. However, in both situations, the donor’s family should provide permission to remove the heart.
Heart transplant surgeries are not performed for every major heart ailment because not only the process is complicated but arranging a donor and other things are equally complicated too. Doctor from even the best heart hospital in India will only perform this transplant only when the patient has one of the below complications
- If a person has a congenital heart condition, where they are born with a heart abnormality.
If the patient has issues with their heart’s valves - In the case of cardiomyopathy, where the weak heart muscles fail to either function or contract correctly
- In the event of ventricular arrhythmias, where the heart beats are abnormal.
- if an earlier heart transplant didn’t work.
- The physicians may perform a heart transplant if the patient has coronary heart disease.
How to prepare for the surgery
- Visit a transplant centre to get all the required tests done
- Check the hospital’s survival rate so that you can have a faith in them and do not carry any doubts in your mind while going inside the operation theatre
- Since the whole process is time consuming, the hospital might put your name on the waiting list till they arrange everything related to the transplant surgery.
- Be patient while you wait; it may take some time to find a donor who matches your blood type, heart size, etc. Additionally, the wait is longer than the donors’ availability.
- While you’re waiting for the procedure, stay away from intense physical activities
- Don’t neglect the medicines that the doctor has prescribed or given.
- Mediate, remain composed, and unwind. Stress will only make your hypertension worse if you take it.
Post surgery
After the surgery you will be in an ICU ward and not in a general ward. You might feel some pain in the chest where the surgery has been performed and that will go with time and medicines. Your immunity will be down for a few weeks initially so you must be careful not to go out much but only take proper rest. The heart beats might feel abnormal initially but everything will resolve in few weeks
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