someone i know who was only 73 years of age died of "heart failure".it really confuses me because she entered the hospital for her breathing.the day before she died her oxygen was normal and she was set to go home a day after she died.it bothers me because the only night no one stayed with her in the hopital she died.can someone tell me some possible reasons of how she had heart failure when her oxygen was normal and all she had was a common cold at the time of her death?
2007-03-15 15:30:25 · 14 answers · asked by Anonymous in Health ➔ Diseases & Conditions ➔ Respiratory Diseases
this was my grandmother.i am 25 years old and had she not died she could of possibly lived to see my future children.
2007-03-17 04:08:08 · update #1
People in seeming "good health" die every day from heart failure. It's not unusual at all. Heart attacks hit people who appear in perfect health, also.
;-0
2007-03-15 15:34:49 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Heart failure(incapability of the heart to pump the blood effectively) is a chronic condition that usually affects the elderly; it has many causes (hypertension, chronic pulmonary diseases, coronary vessels diseases like atherosclerosis etc). It usually devellops over a period of years and it is "silent" in symptoms at first. It can become symptomatic when there is another condition that puts more stress on the heart (even a common cold can transform the chronic heart failure into an accute episode). The symptoms of this disease include: difficulty in breathing (dispnoea), chest pains (when the cause of the HF is miocardic ischaemia), cough etc. Heart failure means that the chambers of the heart cannot pump blood the way they should. This means that the blood flows slowly, especially in the pulmonary vessels. This sometimes allows the water inside the vessels to leak out and "flood" the lungs; the lungs normally have small cavities (alveoli) filled with air; heart failure makes this cavities to be filled with water...thereby making breathing really difficult... These patients usually have a low O2 in their blood (the gas exchange process in the lungs is hindered by the liquid), but O2 therapy is helpful and may make dispnoea disappear. Your grandmother might have had normal O2 while under O2 therapy. Or maybe your grandmother had a valvular heart disease (mitral valve insufficiency or prolaps etc...) that degenerated into a rupture of the valve or a severe malfunctioning, hindering the circulation of the blood inside the heart and in the circulatory system.Heart failure is a very unstable disease, and you must understand it is not your fault this happened; it could have happened at any time. I don't think it is the fault of the hospital personnel, because, as i've told you, HF can look compensated at one moment and within hours it can precipitate into accute HF and death... All you can do is to undestand you or your family have no fault in this and try to move on.
2007-03-21 20:56:55 · answer #2 · answered by Blackangel 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I'm sorry for your loss. I can't tell u why but i can tell u this I care for people who are dieing and for some reason some just get tired. The heart can go strong for years and no sign of a problems will ever show, it does not always have to be lack of 02 that causes the heart to fail. I have cared for some who were 100, some 30, there is no set of rules. when the heart gets tired it stops, I've held the hand of one on their last breath and others waited until I left the room for a break. My mother-in-law called for me, we talked and she told me it was time to go but she didn't leave us until I walked out of her room I stepped through the door and she took her last breath she was 82. some times there are no answers, but know this u are not the only one with questions. If u have faith pray for peace and remember your friend would want u to live on.
2007-03-15 15:49:55 · answer #3 · answered by DJ 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Pulomonary (breathing) problems often precede a diagnosis of heart failure. The heart/lung connection is very well documented. And unfortunately, especially in women, heart disease goes undiagnosed until it is too late.
I've read that it is also VERY common for someone to pass away AFTER everyone has left. Perhaps some awareness of wanting to spare a loved one pain is at work. You hear of it all the time. "I just got home from the hospital, and I got the call" or "I just stepped out for a cup of coffee".
I'm sorry for your loss. Peace be with you & your family.
2007-03-15 15:43:01 · answer #4 · answered by Kat 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Heart failure also know as congestive heart failure (CHF) is the hearts inability to pump the blood effectively. In this condition, the blood backs up in the pulmonary veins and then into the lungs vascular system. This blood will build up enough pressure to start passing into the air sacs of the lungs and filling them. If the lungs have blood in the air sacs, they cannot pass oxygen to the blood stream. Even if oxygen is passed to the blood stream, it is not moving very well because of the CHF.
I am very sorry to hear of your loss.
2007-03-15 15:46:36 · answer #5 · answered by Matt A 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
No one is going to be able to give you the answer you are looking for. She was 73 years old and obviously, given the age, has some health problems...whether they have been discovered yet.
You need to grieve her loss, I can completely understand what you are going through, I have been through something just the same. Rest assure, when it came time for her to pass, the medical staff there did everything they could to save her.
You need to believe that it was her time. God was ready for her and he took her, without a moments notice. It is gut wrenching knowing that she spent her last night alone, but she is in a wonderful, wonderful place now. You need to be thankful for that. She lived a full, happy life and is very lucky to have people like you that love and cared for her.
It is terrible what happened to her, and I am truly sorry that you are not going to get the answer you are looking for here. Grieve her death, and celebrate her life, she would want you to do that.
2007-03-15 15:43:30 · answer #6 · answered by foolscompany 1 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Here is a link I found and it has to do with the causes of sudden death in congestive heart failure. I always thought of congestive heart failure as a very slow process but this was an informative paper on CHF.
http://mj.med.u-tokai.ac.jp/pdf/300302.pdf
2007-03-15 16:10:31 · answer #7 · answered by nochocolate 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Heart failure happens for numerous reasons, fluid build up and it might have been more then a common cold. It usually does happen when no one is around or so it seems. Just remeber I'm sure that person knew you cared.
2007-03-15 15:41:57 · answer #8 · answered by CaseyK 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Some people unfortunatelly can go into flash pulmonary edema. I don't know your whole case and from what you wrote with her sats being ok and then her sudden death, Flash pulmonary edema comes suddenly and can be fatal. I am sorry for your loss but I hope this helps.
2007-03-17 15:59:46 · answer #9 · answered by medic_onfire 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Breathing dificulty is one of the symptoms of heart failure so that was probably her problem to begin with. I'm sorry that you lost your friend.
2007-03-15 15:37:08 · answer #10 · answered by Neil L 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋