A Growing Heart Problem: Congestive Heart Failure

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There is a surgical procedure called Surgical Ventricular Restoration (SVR) that can stop the progression of heart failure caused by a prior heart attack. There should be more written to inform the public of this life changing alternative to medicines that only treat the symptoms.

Janice of TX 11:19PM February 03, 2009

How does this disease finally kill you?? No one seems to say. I'm primary care giver for my Mother, she's class IV, and I have intimate knowledge of the disease, it's treatments, in-home care for Mom, medications, ER procedures, PT, Medicare coverage-- the whole gamut!
But how will my Mom die? Will the fluids that now surround her midsection cause her lungs to fill and she drowns in bed? Will her heart simply slow to a stop while she's sleeping? Will she be in pain? Will the ICD simply be turned off and she'll go to sleep never to wake up again? Her muscles have atrophied from lack of oxygen and her kidneys are GFR 20 (and have been for years), so, will her barely functioning kidneys give out before her heart?
My husband and I have agreed that I'm moving into Mom's guest room so that I can nurse her until the end, and, it's bad enough not to know how long "the end" may take... but I have no idea what I may be facing. We make frequent trips to the ER because she can't breathe so I know we don't have long.
There must be some "basic or predictable" way that this disease usually ends a life... is there?

Vivien Hight of OR 5:38PM February 03, 2009

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Heart to Heart

Bernadine Healy, M.D., U.S.News & World Report's health editor and author of the magazine's On Health column, is the former head of the National Institutes of Health, the American Red Cross, and the College of Medicine and Public Health at Ohio State University. A cardiologist and author of two books, she spent more than 25 years practicing medicine. In this blog, she covers matters close to her heart, including cardiovascular disease and other important aspects of personal health and health policy.