The procedure will be conducted with general anesthesia, so you will be unaware and won't feel any pain. You'll have a tube guided through your mouth and into your windpipe so that you can breathe.

Your surgeon will make a cut in your chest to remove your diseased lung. The main airway to that lung and the blood vessels between that lung and your heart will then be connected to the donor lung. For some lung transplants, you may be connected to a heart-lung bypass machine, which circulates your blood during the procedure.