Live Life Team
What happens in this process,
The transplant centre will contact you as soon as they find the most appropriate donor heart as per your requirement. You will be asked to go to the medical centre for a complete check-up so as to ensure that no further medical complication has been lately developed.
Whenever you are called by the transplant centre:
Avoid drinking and eating anything
Carry with you all your current medications
Take all your essentials and a bag of clothes or your stay in the hospital
You will have to go through a quick reassessment at the transplant centre. You might have to go through a whole lot of tests again just to ensure that no new further complications have been development. Simultaneously, the heart of the donor is thoroughly examined. For the best chances of the success of the transplant, the heart should be transplanted maximum within 4 hours of the removal of the heart from the donor. If the heart transplant is not done within maximum of six hours, the heart becomes unsuitable and unusable. You will be given the aesthetic only once it has been confirmed by the medical team that the heart is in a perfect condition and is suitable for you.
How to prepare for the heart transplant
You will be referred for an assessment, if the heart transplant is considered as an option for you. You will have to go through a series of tests for ensuring that the transplant is the most appropriate solution.
Transplant Assessment
For a complete transplant process you will have to stay in the hospital for a minimum of 3 to 5 days for the process of assessment.
The series of tests that will be carried out during this process will include:
Urine tests
Blood tests
Tests for finding out the efficiency of your lungs
Tests to be carried out on your heart, which would mainly include exercise test, ECG and cardiac catheterisation. This will help in determining to what extent your heart has been affected and if any other type of treatments might prove to be helpful.
It can be decided only after the process of assessment, whether you have the option of any other treatment or not. After this assessment process it would be decided:
If you will have to get on to the active waiting list, which would mean that you would be receiving a call for the transplant any time
You may be acceptable for the transplant, but at this time your condition is not that severe. You will be put on hold or on the provisional wait list and if your condition further worsens, you will be moved to the active list
There is a possibility that you will have to go through a series of tests and investigations, before a final decision can be reached.
There is a possibility that you would be considered unsuitable and unfit for the transplant. In that case, you will be given other treatment options by the assessment team
You might require a 2nd opinion from another transplant centre.
