How does a heart pillow help someone after open heart surgery?

Heart pillows can provide several benefits for open heart surgery patients, including:

1. Comfort: Open heart surgery patients often experience discomfort and pain around the chest and ribcage. A heart pillow can help provide cushioning and support to alleviate this discomfort. Our pillows are very firm so they don’t cave in but instead give support when needing to do the deep breathing exercises. Because of the pain, if a patient does not have a pillow for support during their exercises, some won't do the exercises in order to avoid the pain. But in avoiding the pain now, they will likely experience much more pain later if they would develop pnemonia and have much more unwanted coughing or have even further complicatons. Our pillows help encourage them to do the exercises by making it less painful.

2. Protection: After open heart surgery, patients are advised to avoid bending, twisting or lifting heavy objects for several weeks. A heart pillow can help protect the surgical site from accidental bumps or jolts and even help keep the sternal wires in place. (The pillow is also nice deterrant if your favorite furry family member is used to jumping up on your chest to take a nap)

3. Breathing assistance: Heart pillows can be used to help open up the chest area and improve lung function, making it easier for patients to take deep breaths and cough effectively, which can help prevent complications such as pneumonia.

4. Emotional support: Recovering from open heart surgery can be a challenging and emotional experience. A heart pillow can provide patients with a sense of comfort and security, which can help reduce anxiety and promote relaxation.

5. Physical therapy aid: A heart pillow can be used as an aid in physical therapy exercises prescribed by a patient's doctor or physical therapist to help strengthen the chest and upper body muscles.

Overall, heart pillows can be a valuable tool in helping open heart surgery patients manage their recovery and improve their overall comfort and well-being.

Here at The Cardiac Bear, we have a variety of heart pillows for individuals or hospitals to purchase. You can even have a specific message imprinted on the pillow from you to your loved one.

What makes The Cardiac Bear’s heart pillows (Healing Hearts) different from all others’? First, hospitals know that infection control is extremely important in the recovering open heart surgery patient! In order to combat infection, we have made the cloth pillow with a vinyl waterproof cover. This outer pillow can be wiped down with antibacterial wipes to remove any bacteria that may have gotten on it when handled by others or from maybe falling on the floor at home or in a hospital. Second, we stuff our pillows with a specific combination of filling that is firmer than those filled with simply fiberfill to press against their chest while conforming to individuals’ body. We have consulted with cardiologists and infection control departments to design the best possible product that would be most helpful – size wise, firmness wise, customization wise and comfort wise and put those features together to make the best possible pillow for the patient as well as worthy of acceptance for hospital compliance for infection control.

Third, Our Healing Heart Pillows are made with a zipper so the cover is removable and it can be washed without the inner pillow. The zipper is designed so that it is hidden, therefore, when the pillow falls on the floor, bacteria does not come into contact with the zipper- only the outer cover which will be wiped down with sani-wipes. Cloth pillows are not made like this so they will easily harbour bacteria and cannot be wiped off.

To view a variety of heart pillows that The Cardiac Bear makes, Go HERE to check them out.