My mother recently went in for heart surgery, what is the usual recovery time for a torn aorta?

Question

She went in for a seven hour surgery. Her health isn't the best, she has pancreatic cancer, high blood pressure, diabetes, kidney problems, and when they did her surgery, the found a tumor in her heart that they took a biopsy of. She hasn't awakened yet from her surgery. Her doctors aren't even discussing recovery with us at this point. We are on a wait and see basis. It's scary because my mom is only forty years old. I am the oldest out of four. My brothers are nine and fourteen. It scares me even more because they keep telling us to wait and see. Its like they don't expect her to come out of it. They keep saying lets take it one day at a time, but i would feel a little more in control if i had more information about all this.

Answer 1

Ask her surgeon / doctor.....

Answer 2

I'm not a surgeon and so I can't give you a good answer to that question, but I may be able to help a bit with what really seems to be bothering you.
When doctors say they need to wait and see, it really means just that, we often have some idea what's going to happen, but we don't tell the patient or the family too early because we don't want to give misleading information, it is ofter better to be silent and wait than to give information that is an educated guess and turns out to be wrong later, that's just confusing.
A 7 hour surgery is no laughing matter, though I don't know exactly what the condition was or what surgery was performed. Probably the best thing you can do is if you can get the surgeons for a few minutes, ask them what they're watching for and what might be a good or a bad sign - that's something they should be able to answer. However, be sure you want to hear the answer before you do, because there is always the possibility that things are not looking good (again, I don't know anything about the case, I'm speaking in generalities).
Situations like this are never easy, and we usually try to keep families up to date without just spewing out unfiltered information, so though I know this is impossible, try to be patient, watch and wait along with the doctors, and when things become clearer, hopefully they should be able to give you better information.

Answer 3

Ask your Doctor. They can answer your questions.

A lot depends on her general physical condition.

Answer 4

She's lucky to be alive! That is something that can kill you almost immedaitely.

You need to speak to her surgeon and cardiologist.