Transplant Time

When a donor heart or heart-lung is located, you will be telephoned or beeper-paged and given specific instructions on what to do.

When you arrive at the hospital, go directly to the Pediatric Emergency Room (ER).  You and your child will go through several steps very quickly:

• Meet with members of cardiac surgery, pediatric cardiology, and anesthesia.
• Sign consent forms.
• Begin routine preoperative procedures, such as blood-drawing and weight checks.

At the appropriate time, the staff will let you know that it is time for your child to be transported to the cardiac operating room.

For your child

The waiting period offers you time to talk with your child and prepare him for the exciting days ahead.

Reassure him that you will stay with him as long as he is awake, and that you will be with him when he wakes up.  He will wake up in a hospital room with many nurses and doctors and feel quite sore, at first.  He will see bright lights and bags that drip medicine into his blood where it can help him the fastest.  He may feel a breathing tube in his throat.  He also will feel a tube that lets his “pee” drip into a bag so even that part of him can rest.  He will see a large bandage and feel some tubes where his new heart and lungs are.  When he no longer needs the tubes, the doctor will remove them.