What happens if you get water round your heart and your heart does not pump properly?

Answer 1

It is called congestive heart failure and eventually it will kill you.

Answer 2

It depends on the severity of the fluid around the heart. If it is from CONGESTIVE HEART FAILURE, the doctor will probably put the person on a diuretic (may be called lasix, or aldactone) to help them get fluid out of their circulation. The next thing the doctor will do is try to improve the heart's pumping with a drug like digoxin (or if the fluid buildup is very bad - iv dobutamine). The digoxin or dobutamine helps the heart squeeze harder and more efficiently. Finally the doctor will give the person something to lower their blood pressure, so the heart will not have to pump against pressure. .

If the water round the heart problem was called CARDIAC TAMPONADE, then the treatment is as someone said: cut a hole in the sac around the heart called the pericardium. The hole is called a pericardial window and might even have a drain. CARDIAC TAMPONADE is an EMERGENCY. CONGESTIVE HEART FAILURE (Doctors and nurses will say CHF) is a chronic condition that can be managed.

Answer 3

This sounds like a question about cardiac tamponade, caused by fluid collecting in the pericardial sac and therefore making less space available for the heart to pump properly. The most common cause of cardiac tamponade must be penetrating trauma: a stab wound or gun shot wound making a hole in the heart and allowing blood to leak out into the pericardial sac.

The victim will be very unwell: pale, clammy and sweaty, with rapid, shallow breathing, and a fast, thready pulse. The volume of the pulse may vary with breathing and the victim's neck veins may be easily visible due to the back pressure from the heart.

Cardiac tamponade is a medical emergency and is usually rapidly fatal if not recognised and treated promptly.

The immediate treatment is decompression of the pericardial sac by inserting a long needle under the breast bone, and into the space between the pericardim and the heart. The fluid can then be drawn out with a syringe. It will then be necessary to seek the help of a cardiothoracic surgeon for more definitive treatment.

Answer 4

if it is left untreated long enough, it would be harmful, and you could die. My husband had this, after a heart transplant, as his old heart had stretched the sack which the heart sits in, and when the new heart went in the sac began to fill with fluid. (the drain had been removed a little too early) and so he had to go back in to theatre for another drain, and when it happened again, he had a pericardium window. (sorry i can not spell it properly) which is, as the cardiologist explained, is just a little cut in the sac so if it happened again the fluid would not put strain on his heart it would drain out in to the area which would be reabsorbed back in to his body. It has never caused any problems since and that was nearly 2 years ago, and my husbands heart is doing brilliant. The doctors are impressed. It had no long term damage to his heart but i think that was because they caught early while he was still in C.I.C.U.
Hope this helps in some way.

Answer 5

What you're talking about is called a pericardial effusion, and it's caused when fluid gathers inside the tough, fibrous sack called the pericardium that surrounds the heart.
If the amount is small or it accumulates slowly and isn't too much, it may not cause any problems (though the cause may still need to be addressed) but if the volume is too large and/or the fluid accumulates quickly you may end up with a condition called cardiac tamponade, which is bad news.
Basically, the problem in tamponade is that enough fluid builds up in the pericardial sack to cause pressure on the heart, and this makes it hard for the heart to expand to accept blood to be pumped out, in the extreme it can drop your cardiac output to the point that it causes shock and death.
Generally it's not the severe though.

Answer 6

a heart that isn't pumping properly is bad news..
water has to be removed, probably by drugs

Answer 7

You die obviously. The heart is stopped from doing it's job by the fluid.

Answer 8

You get surgery to relieve the problem with the paracardium.
If caught properly, you won't die.

Answer 9

You rush to call the plumber!!!

Answer 10

heart failure