Few studies have focussed on patients’ experiences of and suffering due to mediastinitis following Coronary Artery by-passGraft (CABG). Mediastinitis creates a complex and invasive experience for the patient with prolonged hospitalisation, and would be expected to be a significant stressor. The aim of the present study was to capture patients’ experiences of themedical and nursing care they received for mediastinitis following CABG. Content analysis revealed three themes withregard to how the patients coped with the stress and threats of mediastinitis and its treatment and how they thought it wouldinfluence their future life. A first theme centred on physical and psychological discomfort and impact on autonomy. Thestaff ’s medical knowledge and the quality of nursing care as well as the patients’ understanding of the situation influencedtheir experience. A second theme was how patients dealt with perceived danger and stress. Coping strategies such asproblem solving, information seeking, dissociation, distraction, minimisation and expression of emotion were used to handlethe situations. The third theme comprised the patients’ belief that the mediastinitis would not affect the outcome of theCABG procedure, even though their confidence in this was influenced by uncertainty about the rehabilitation process.