Before major cardiac surgery, attention naturally turns to medical tests, risks, the surgical team, and the procedure itself. Yet there is also the person who, for several hours, must surrender control of their body and life to the hands of others. Fear before surgery does not necessarily indicate a lack of trust or an inability to cope. A patient may have complete confidence in their surgeon while still wondering, “What if I don’t wake up?”, “Will I still be the same person?”, or “What will my life be like afterwards?” Psychological preparation is not about eliminating these thoughts, but about creating enough emotional safety for them to be expressed, understood, and held.
The surgical experience also involves a temporary loss of control and a profound act of trust in the medical team. Adequate information matters, but information alone is not always enough: knowing what will happen is different from feeling that you will not be alone while it is happening. From a systemic perspective, the patient does not psychologically arrive at the operating room alone; an entire network of relationships comes with them. Family roles may shift, the person who usually cares for others may suddenly need to be cared for, and everyone may try so hard to protect one another that nobody speaks openly about what they truly fear. Comprehensive care therefore needs to attend not only to the heart being operated on, but also to the person who is entrusting that heart — and their life — to the hands of others.
The full article was originally published on the Psychology Portal – Psychology.gr.