Post-Operative Care
After your heart transplant surgery, you will be transferred to an intensive care unit (ICU). In the ICU, your blood pressure, heart rate and heart rhythm will be continuously monitored.
Several tubes will be put in place during your operation. A breathing tube will be inserted into your windpipe through your mouth and will be connected to a ventilator. You will not be able to speak until the tube is removed. You will need to communicate using a word board and hand gestures. A tube will be inserted through your nose, down your esophagus (your swallowing tube) and into your stomach to empty your stomach.
Various drainage tubes will be in place in your chest to drain excess fluid. You will have a tube in place to drain your urine. This tube may make you feel like you have to urinate. Intravenous lines will be inserted in your neck and arms to give you medications and fluids for nutrition, to draw blood and to monitor your heart and lungs. These tubes and drains will be removed as you recover.
Your medical care will be closely supervised by a team of heart transplant surgeons and physicians and critical care medicine doctors. A specially trained critical care nurse will be assigned to you to provide and monitor your care. Chest X-rays, biopsies and blood work will be done frequently to monitor your progress.
Your family may visit as soon as your condition is stabilized. Only two visitors may visit you at a time and always at the discretion of the critical care nurse who is caring for you. The average ICU stay is usually three days, if you have a normal heart transplant recovery.
You will be transferred from the ICU to the transplant patient unit, where you will continue to be monitored closely. Blood work and biopsy will be done to monitor your new heart and your anti-rejection drugs will be adjusted as necessary. An in-house transplant coordinator makes daily rounds to all patients who have had a heart transplant. The coordinator will teach you about your new heart, answer your questions and prepare you for discharge. The coordinator helps relay information between patients on the heart transplant unit and the transplant office staff. You will be assigned a coordinator who will be your primary contact person after you are discharged. The average length of stay on the patient unit is about two weeks, if you do not have any complications.
After Discharge
After you are discharged from the hospital, you will be seen in the postoperative heart transplant clinic. Blood will be drawn to monitor your medication levels, and you will be seen by your transplant coordinator and the transplant physicians.
After you are discharged, your progress will continue to be followed closely. Your transplant coordinator will act as a liaison between your local doctor and the transplant surgery team. Contact your transplant coordinator at (914) 493-7632 if you have any questions or problems after you are discharged. After office hours, you will be able to contact the transplant coordinator on call at (914) 493-7632 with any questions or concerns.