What it’s like to handle a heart
Business as usual.
There may be a beating heart in front of them, but for cardiothoracic surgeon Peter Alison and the teams behind transplant surgery, standing at the operating table is part of a job.
‘‘Business, as usual, it’s just a significant heart operation that happens to be a transplant,’’ he said. ‘‘The only relatively unique thing about transplantation is you are kind of called to do the transplant when it’s ready to be done. ‘‘
Surgeons and medical teams can get the call for it to go ahead at any time – ‘‘historically in the middle of the night’’.
Auckland-based Alison qualified in 1997 and has been working as a specialist surgeon focusing on heart and lungs since 2000.
‘‘The first time I saw a heart beating inside a chest, I thought it was amazing. Seeing the heart, the way it beats and squeezes is impressive. You watch it banging away there.’’
He said heart transplantation was not the most difficult surgery medical professionals can undertake, mostly because it’s a lot of relatively straightforward stitching. ‘‘The difficulty with heart transplant surgery is to resuscitate the new heart once it’s all stitched and sewed into place. The new heart’s had a really bad day.’’
In theatre, the patient goes on a heart-lung machine which takes over the function of the heart and lungs during open-heart surgery.
The main artery leaving the heart is clamped, isolating the heart from the rest of the circulation. Surgeons are then able to remove it and prepare for the new heart.
A transplant can take between six and eight hours, but normally about an hour of that might be waiting for the new heart to recover while the patient is on the heart-lung machine.
Alison and his colleagues work on a whole host of medical problems, from removing lung cancers to open-heart surgery.
But overall, transplants ‘‘very rewarding’’.
‘‘Because people, on the whole, have only one problem with them and you’ve fixed that problem,’’ Alison said.
One transplant is seen to by dozens of staff in a huge team undertaking: from medical staff who come in after hours for the surgery, to teams outside the theatre caring for the patient.
‘‘The wider transplant team, they almost become part of their family. You talk to the transplant were
If you want to put yourself in the position of saving someone’s life, don’t assume that just ticking a box on your driver’s licence seals the deal – it’s an indication of your interest only, not an official organ donation register.
The most important thing you can do is talk to those closest to you about it, says Organ Donation NZ’s Rebecca Oliver.
Organ Donation NZ has a guide to what that conversation might look like at donor.co.nz
co-ordinators and they know who’s had a child, how the dog’s doing,’’ Alison said.
Helen Gibb is one of those coordinators for lung and heart patients. ‘‘For most patients [going into surgery], being scared is normal to feel. Any of us would feel scared going into the unknown but they’re excited as well, because it’s an opportunity for a new life.’’
Figures from Organ Donation New Zealand show there were 20 heart transplants in 2018.