Do they have to take the heart out. I’m very confused
In: Biology
During the operation, the patient is put on a “heart and lung machine”, a mechanical machine that takes care of oxygenating and pumping the blood while the surgeon works.
Once the new heard is successfully implanted, it takes just a little bit of work to get pumping on its own. Fun fact: It takes weeks or even months for the patient’s nervous system to properly connect to the heart to tell it how to beat, but in the meantime, the heart just beats on its own! The patient is advised to not exercise or do anything strenuous for the first few weeks/months after surgery, because the heart is just beating at more or less a “resting” rate and can’t yet receive signals from the nervous system to speed up or pump harder.
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