Efforts by hospitals and organizations nationwide aim to increase public awareness of this problem and improve organ distribution. Organs are cooled and kept in a special solution while being taken to the patient. This machine allows surgeons to bypass the blood flow to the heart and lungs. Doctors remove the patient's heart except for the back walls of the atria, the heart's upper chambers. The backs of the atria on the new heart are opened and the heart is sewn into place.
Surgeons then connect the blood vessels and allow blood to flow through the heart and lungs.
As the heart warms up, it begins beating. Sometimes, surgeons must start the heart with an electrical shock. Severe coronary artery disease , in which the heart's blood vessels become blocked and the heart muscle is damaged. Birth defects of the heart. Alternative therapies for these patients have been tried or considered.