As a patient, you are a part of our team. We think it is important for you to know what to expect before, during and after your surgery. We believe that when you know what to expect you will not worry as much, and you will recover better from your surgery.
The Day of Your SurgeryBefore Surgery
You will be taken to the operating room area about one to two hours before your surgery starts. Your family may visit you before you go to surgery. They will need to come at least two hours before your surgery is scheduled to start.
Before leaving your room, you will gargle with a mouth wash. You may be given a sedative to help you relax and begin to make you feel drowsy. You will be taken to an area outside of the operating room where you will meet the anesthesiologist and some of the operating room staff. The anesthesiologist will put an intravenous (IV) line into your vein and give you some more sedative medicine. You will probably fall asleep at this time. Your heart surgery may take from three to six hours depending on its complexity.
Please understand that the surgery schedule sometimes has to change at short notice. If this happens, the date or time of your surgery may have to be changed. We will let you know as soon as possible if any changes have to be made.
Family Waiting Area
This will be a long day for your family. There is no right or wrong place for them to be. We suggest that they wait wherever they will be most comfortable. We will need a contact person identified and a number where that person can be reached. We recommend that if they are planning to wait during your surgery, they do so in the Surgical Family Waiting Area, which is located on the first floor of the Gray building in the back lobby of the main hospital. Your doctor will call your family when your surgery is finished. After surgery, it may take up to an hour to transfer you to the Cardiac Surgical Intensive Care Unit on Blake 8 (the eighth floor of the Blake building). Many families use this time to stop for lunch or coffee or to make phone calls. Once you have been admitted to the intensive care unit, and your family has talked with the doctor, your family may go to the visitor's lounge on Blake 8.
We ask that they use the house phone in the lounge to call into the Cardiac Surgical Intensive Care Unit before visiting you. The secretary or nurse will tell them when they can go into the intensive care unit to visit.
Communication leads to better patient outcomes 
Eighty-nine percent of inpatients report that Massachusetts General Hospital staff provide thorough discharge instructions, compared with a national average of 79 percent.
