Immediately after heart surgery?

So, I was wondering—how long does it actually take for someone to come around after heart bypass surgery, assuming they went through the whole deal with the chest being opened?

Hopefully there's an MD in here somewhere who can weigh in on this.

It really all comes down to how the patient is holding up right after surgery and whether the anesthesiologist decides to keep them sedated on the ventilator or not....

The routine usually looks something like this....Surgery kicks off in the morning, maybe around 8 or 9 AM....then the patient typically rolls into the ICU around 2 or 3 in the afternoon. If their vitals are steady and there aren't any weird changes on the ECG, we'll start weaning them off the sedation—usually Propofol—so they can slowly wake up (you'll see them starting to twitch their face, hands, or legs, opening their eyes, and eventually taking over their own breathing while still on the vent...)...once their breathing is looking good, we extubate them...honestly, that usually happens somewhere between when CNN starts its morning broadcast and the end of that NBC segment....Of course, things can change because every single patient is different, so if things aren't looking great, we might keep them sedated through the night or even longer....

So, I know someone who had surgery back on January 20th—tomorrow is going to be day four—and he just won't wake up... He’ll open his eyes for a second and then immediately drift right back off. Does anyone actually know why that happens? The doctors are already talking about trying to take him off the ventilator. He’s an older guy, maybe around 70. Is there any real chance he’s going to come around? I really need some insight here... THANKS

It’s honestly pretty tough to call a situation like this just based on what you’ve typed out here. Like, is he waking up because they’re sedating him for something specific, or is it something else entirely? I'm wondering about his hemodynamics—what are we looking at there? Is his sternum still open, or did they have to put in an intra-aortic balloon pump? And how are his lungs holding up?.....Look, just give us a little more to work with. And hey, don't go worrying about someone "unplugging the machine" and causing him to pass away... that’s definitely not going to happen. Not a chance.

He had a full sternotomy—you know, they cracked his chest open—and after the surgery, everything was closed back up. He isn’t on an intra-aortic balloon pump or anything like that... as for his lungs, I can't say for sure, though I do know he was dealing with what looked like pneumonia about 15 days before the procedure went down.

Even after surgery, if things get shaky with the patient, they’ll just move them straight to the shock room with an open chest—that way, the team can jump in immediately if everything goes south. If it turns out they're actually stabilizing, they'll just close up the chest after a little while... that's what I was getting at when I asked earlier...

Being on a ventilator on day four post-op has to be for a reason... clearly, they aren't quite managing to breathe on their own yet. I mean, it's hard to pinpoint the exact cause without being there, you know? Could be heart failure, ARDS, fluid in the lungs, atelectasis, or maybe even some neurological issues... there are so many possibilities, but honestly, it doesn't always mean the worst is happening.

Thanks for all the input, everyone... hopefully this all turns out okay in the end.