If someone dies from congestive heart failure, how do they die?

Question

Sorry if it sounds a little morbid. I'm just wondering is the death fast and painless or is it slow and painful?

Answer 1

not morbid at alll. better to know the way it goes and be prepared than to sit and wonder why things are happening the way they are.
My husband had congestive heart failure.
What happens is the heart is enlarged due to either a heart attack, or a virus has attacked the muscle and ruined it, making it large and unable to beat strongly to pump the blood. This makes the kidneys not work very well and they will allow excess water to build into the body, and when the lungs get full of water they make it hard to breath. then they have something called angina, a pain that is really servere in the chest area, and they can't breath. Scares them badly.
There are medications which will help the heart to beat stronger and pull off the excess water from the body, but these are very strong and cause all kinds of side effects which are very uncomfortable.
They are restricted in the amount of water they consume and salt. Making them very unhappy and uncomfortable. They cannot do much of any kind of physical activities in a normal sense and this causes them to lose their breath and pain. also depression.
It is a terrible thing to have happen to you. I could not convince my husband to slow down and quit smoking. He passed away at age 44 from a heart attack while driving down the road.
The death by heart failure is basically they drown, from the fluid in their lungs, or they have a heart attack from the pressure on their already worn out muscle.
Cocaine and methamphetamines are a big cause of the problem, with younger people. most usually it occurs in people who have had a lot of heart damage from a attack, or the drugs. or in my husbands case he has a hereditary gene that tripped when he got a virus and it ruined the heart muscle.
Not a good way to go. but it can be quick or long and drawn out. but never painless.

Answer 2

1

Answer 3

End Stage Congestive Heart Failure

Answer 4

2

Answer 5

3

Answer 6

Sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. This is generally a disease of the elderly ( 80 yrs onward ) but it can attack the young, either through inherited weakness or a disease which affects the heart. Sometimes the patient doesn't know they have a problem until the 'lights go out', other times they gradually become aware through breathing difficulties sleep problems etc. Just occasionally it can follow a heart attack.

If this is going to happen as a result of genetic causes there is very little you can do about it . Hopefully emergency care will pull you back but it has to be admitted there is so little time once the heart has stopped. Youngsters sometimes go down in sport and occasionally someone may go down in the street, all you can hope for is that someone know how to apply resuscitation. If however there are risks that have developed following disease the prognosis is better because you can be forewarned and there fore forearmed.

Answer 7

My mother died of congestive heart failure at the age of 95. She had other conditions as well, so was on a morphine drip for around a week. On the day she died I had been called out in the early hours of the morning because her breathing had changed and I sat with her hours until she passed away. Her breathing was rasping and there was a lot of liquid which the nurses had to drain off periodically - they sent me out of the room when they did that because they didn t want me to get distressed. During the last hour or so they shut the door to the outer ward and left me alone with her. I knew she was going when I noticed her hands and arms had swollen up and she felt boiling hot. There was a lot of frothy liquid which was coming up and I had to constantly wipe it away - this would have been what the nurses were draining off earlier. They had warned me that some patients can vomit which looks unpleasant, but a lot do it. I don t know why, but there was a moment when I knew she was going and I held her hand and laid my head next to hers and sang a couple of her favourite songs into her ear quietly - we had sung the same songs to my father when he died the year before. I told her she was loved. Her breathing got slower and slower and her passing was so gentle that I couldn t tell if she had gone or not - had to check the pulse in her neck. Sat with her a little while in the quiet and still talked to her then called the nurses in. I think it s a real privelidge to be your loved ones when they die. The hospital staff gave me a gift in letting me be there and leaving me on my own to make my goodbyes.

Answer 8

I can tell you first hand. My brother died of this at 38 yrs old after getting the flu and it damaged his heart.
It a hard one and I was with him every step of the way.
Congestive Heart Failure does not really cause pain in itself but the side effects do as the heart looses its pumping capabilities. He was told he had the heart of a 70 yr old man, and no doctor wanted to tell him he was not eligible for a transplant and without it he would die. They kept him in the dark.
Signs of heart failure:
Cant sleep laying flat, head must be elevated
Lack of oxygen to your body
Coughing during the night
Tired, weakness, lethargic
Bloating, water retention as heart slows down
Ulcers on legs, open soars from water coming out of pores on
lower extremities (very very painful)
Problems sleeping, lightheaded and sometimes dizzy

Was put on a no-salt diet (very hard to attain as everything has salt) given 6 types of medications (none really worked), was told not too work and get mild exercise. Nothing strenuous and no lifing, shoveling, or enything that gets the heart rate high. You are basically sitting around alot and elevating the feet (as water pools in the feet and legs).

Death was slow. It is a slow downward spiral that you can not control just try to make easier. He died in a hospital when his heart gave out and they could not revive him. That part was painless but he suffered mostly from the couple months of edema (legs swollen and giving off fluids and open sores). He was really scary looking and painful to watch.

He died 9 yrs ago. Nowadays there are possible cures for this problem. There is a procedure where they take muscle out of the persons back and wrap it around the heart and sew it on. The muscle helps give strenght to the heart and restores much of the pumping capacity. Ask a doctor or research this it is worth a try.

You can get congestive heart failure from many things like: the flu, viral infections, germs getting into the heart muscle, drug use or abuse, alcoholism or old age.

I hope this helps...

Answer 9

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A person doesn't die directly from CHF. Congestive heart failure is a situation in which the heart can't pump blood well enough to meet the needs of the body in all circumstances. So a person doesn't die, but they can have problems with daily life because of the inadequate circulation provided by the heart. CHF tends to be progressive over time, and eventually the heart may be so weak that it will fail completely instead of simply being inadequate to the task, at which point death occurs. But CHF itself doesn't directly cause death, rather it's some complication precipitated by CHF that can cause death.

Answer 10

I know it is slow. Congestive heart failure is NOT a heart attack. It is when the heart loses the ability to pump blood effeciently. My grandmother died of this. I don't think it is "painful" although it is accompanied by symptoms that are not pleasant, such a edema (swelling and fluid accumulation). Fluid in the lungs resulting in pneumonia is common.