How Long To Regain Consciousness After Open Heart Surgery?
I just clicked on an email from Esther that reads, “Hi Adam - How long does it take for patients to regain consciousness after open heart surgery? I am preparing for mitral valve replacement due to my worn out and prolapsed mitral valve. I’m just curious to know how long I’ll be unconscious, under general anesthesia. Thanks. Esther.”
From my own experience, I can share with you that I went under general anesthesia at 11am - once I was brought into the operating room. According to Robyn, my wife, my open heart surgery was 3 hours long. After surgery, I was rolled into the intensive care unit (ICU) where I was actively monitored by an ICU nurse for the next several hours.
Then, around 5:30pm, I SLOOOOOOWLY (emphasis added) began to regain consciousness. At first, I only heard noises. Next, my eyes began to open slightly and close slightly. The epic moment, when I knew I had fully regained consciousness was when the very uncomfortable ventilator tube was removed from my dry throat.
So, given the above, it took me about 6.5 hours to regain consciousness after open heart surgery. However, please know that each patient case is unique. There are many variables which could impact surgery length (e.g. heart surgery complications) and the time that a patient is unconscious.
I hope that helps explains how long it takes for a patient to regain consciousness after heart surgery.
Keep on tickin!
P.S. Did you already have surgery? How long were you unconscious? Click here to leave a comment.
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September 13th, 2008 at 12:53 am
Hi Adam, it’s your fan Leslie again … I had mitral valve repair and I went into surgery at 10 AM, came out of surgery about 6 PM (yes I was in there that long because it took nearly 2 hours just to prep me and I had the Da Vinci robot, which takes longer, and my surgery was more complicated than they expected plus they found a hole in my heart which they repaired_ whew)….anyway, I do not remember a single thing until 11:30 pm . But when I woke up I really woke up, I looked up at the clock first thing, saw the time, tried to say something and noticed I had this big ole ventilator in the way. The next hour was spent slowly being weaned from the oxygen in the tube and proving I could breathe well on my own and at 12:30 am out came the ventilator, yay! And I felt pretty darned good for what I went through.
September 17th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
My husband had an aortic valve replacement and mitral valve repair. Surgery took about 2 hours once they went on the heart lung machine and another hour to close. He was in intensive care less than an hour before the breathing tube was removed. I came back 2 hours later and he was wide awake and fully with it. He was talking non stop. He stayed that way all night. None of the other patients woke up that fast……it’s an individual thing for sure.
April 15th, 2009 at 9:09 pm
A friend of mine, online mind you, had a hole in her heart repaired and went in one morning and was about by lunch. Is this possible?