What Is Heart Failure? .. My personal experience.
"I just need to live one more year". That's how our conversation started. He looked like a retired football or a baseball player type. Solid, strong looking gentlemen in his late 50's, early 60's, still in his prime.
Yet, it was a struggle for him to walk from the parking lot to the office. To him, it felt like running a marathon.
His shoe laces were haphazardly tied because it was a struggle to bend down to tie his shoes. One of his sock had a yellow wet tint, because of the fluid accumulating in his leg were slowly seeping out of his skin. He had a noticeably labored breathing, due to the fluid that was slowly accumulating in his lungs. And his face was ashened with tiny broken vessels due to lack of perfusion.
Everybody in that room knew his heart was not pumping well.
He knows he doesn't have much time. So, he is pleading with the doctors, nurses, and technicians... anyone who would listen. "just one more year".
He had two lousy options, if you could call it that. An experimental device as a last resort to help his heart pump better or Not.
He was desperate to live, so that he can meet his granddaughter in 9 months. That's all he wanted.
That is heart failure. And that type of conversation was the norm for me as I worked in Heart Failure devices for the past 12 years.
Jae B
https://www.cdc.gov/heartdisease/heart_failure.htm
https://www.emoryhealthcare.org/heart-vascular/wellness/heart-failure-statistics.html