A method of implanting a blood pump in a heart of a mammalian subject includes maintaining a temporary plug in an inlet opening of a pump having a pump body and an outlet cannula projecting from the pump body, advancing the pump into a ventricle of the heart through a hole in a wall of the heart so that the inlet of the pump is disposed within the ventricle and the outlet cannula extends through a valve of the heart into an artery, and then withdrawing the temporary plug from the inlet of the pump.
