“How long will it take my daughter to recover from open heart surgery?”
My daughter is only 8 years old, but she needs to have open heart surgery and is scheduled to have one toward the end of the month. How long would she need to recover fully?
4 Answers
This would be an excellent question for the surgical team caring for your daughter. Recovery depends on the complexity of the surgery as far as length of hospital stay and how long she would be out from school, activities, etc. This is something you should have no hesitation calling and asking for someone from the surgical team to reach out to you about clarifying.
It depends what type of surgery, but I suspect because she is 8 years old, she should be able to go home after 7 days or less, hoping that there are no complications.
She should be able to go to school after 2 weeks and start playing sports after 2 months.
I hope everything goes well!
She should be able to go to school after 2 weeks and start playing sports after 2 months.
I hope everything goes well!
Recovery can vary, depending on the procedure. I would recommend discussing more with the cardiologist and surgeon.
There is not a straight answer to that. With any heart surgery, there are goals that need accomplished for recovery to proceed. In order of timing, they are:
Get through the surgery.
Get off the ventillator.
Get off IV medications that are needed to support the heart.
Get chest tubes and lines out.
Get off oxygen.
Get out of bed and move.
Eat and drink.
Go home.
The type of surgery, the health of the heart, and other complicating factors all contribute to how long recovery will take. That being said, children may be in the hospital for a couple days to a couple of months. Uncomplicated surgery in a healthy 8 year old would typically lead to hospital discharge in 2 days. The most complicated heart surgeries in that age would be expected to have a hospital stay of 1-2 weeks, but easily much longer. On average, most 8 year olds undergoing heart surgery can expect to be home in about 3 days. They are usually off pain medications at around one week. And usually by two weeks they are feeling close to back to normal. Children tend to bounce back much more quickly than adults.
Get through the surgery.
Get off the ventillator.
Get off IV medications that are needed to support the heart.
Get chest tubes and lines out.
Get off oxygen.
Get out of bed and move.
Eat and drink.
Go home.
The type of surgery, the health of the heart, and other complicating factors all contribute to how long recovery will take. That being said, children may be in the hospital for a couple days to a couple of months. Uncomplicated surgery in a healthy 8 year old would typically lead to hospital discharge in 2 days. The most complicated heart surgeries in that age would be expected to have a hospital stay of 1-2 weeks, but easily much longer. On average, most 8 year olds undergoing heart surgery can expect to be home in about 3 days. They are usually off pain medications at around one week. And usually by two weeks they are feeling close to back to normal. Children tend to bounce back much more quickly than adults.
