As a heart transplant surgery is a complicated surgery, the care team will follow the following steps.
Giving General Anesthesia - A heart transplant involves using general anesthesia, which puts a person into deep sleep.
Connecting to a Ventilator - While a person becomes asleep, the health care provider inserts a tube down the throat, attaching the end of the tube outside the body to a machine called ventilator.
Give Blood Thinners - The health care provider adds blood thinner like heparin to blood. This reduces the risk of blood clots as the blood flows through the heart lungs bypass machine.
Connecting to a Heart-Lung Bypass Machine - This is otherwise known as a cardiopulmonary bypass machine. This device takes the functions of the lungs and heart during surgery.
Removing the Patient’s Heart - To place the donor heart, the surgeon removes the diseased heart. This procedure involves clamping off the blood vessels that connect the heart.
Implanting the Donor Heart - The surgeon attaches the donor heart with the blood vessels and starts to warm and restart the new heart. To make this heart beat, the doctor uses an electrical pacing device. This works like a pacemaker and it does not involve permanent implantation.