What Is Congestive Heart Failure

Heart failure may convey that the heart isn’t working anymore, but what it really means is that the heart isn’t pumping as well as it should be (REF). Heart failure is a chronic, progressive condition in which the heart muscle is unable to pump enough blood through to meet the body’s needs for blood and oxygen (REF). At first, the heart tries to make up for this by enlarging, developing more muscle mass, and pumping faster. As this happens, the blood vessels narrow to keep blood pressure up and the body diverts blood away from less important tissues and organs to maintain flow to the heart and brain (REF). Eventually, the body and heart cannot keep up and the patient begins to feel fatigue, breathing problems, weight gain with swelling in the feet, legs, ankles or stomach, and other symptoms that eventually leads to a hospital visit. The body’s coping mechanisms give us better understanding on why many are unaware of their condition until years after the heart declines (REF).

Congestive cardiac failure, also known as heart failure, occurs when the heart is weak and unable to sufficiently supply blood the body needs to function. Heart failure can often be successfully treated with

Heart Failure is a progressive heart disease when the muscle of the heart is weakened so that it cannot pump blood as it should; the blood backs up into the blood vessels around the lungs and the other parts of the body (NHS Choice, 2015). In heart failure, the heart is not able to maintain a normal range cardiac output to meet the metabolic needs of the body (Kemp and Conte, 2012). Heart failure is a major worldwide public health problem, it is the end stage of heart disease and it could lead to high mortality. At present, heart failure is usually associated with old age, given the dramatic increase in the population of older people (ACCF/AHA, 2013). In the USA, there are about 5.7 million adults who have heart failure, about half of the people die within 5 years of diagnosis, and it costs the nation an estimated $30.7 billion each year (ACCF/AHA, 2013).

Nearly 5.1 million people in the United States have been diagnosed with heart failure. Yet so many people don’t have a clue what it is until they have been diagnosed with it. Congestive Heart Failure, or CHF, is a disease that has many symptoms, can be tested and treated, has several causes, and can be avoided.

Congestive Heart Failure, also known as "cardiac decompensation, cardiac insufficiency, and cardiac incompetence," (Basic Nursing 1111) is an imbalance in pump function in which the heart is failing and unable to do its work pumping enough blood to meet the needs of the body's other organs. To some people, heart failure is defined as a sudden and complete stoppage of heart activity—i.e. that the heart just stops beating. This is an inaccuracy. Heart failure usually develops slowly, often over years, as the heart gradually loses its pumping ability and works less efficiently. CHF is a syndrome that affects individuals in different ways and to different degrees. It is usually a chronic disease. It gradually

Working on a cardiac unit for seven years has given me the opportunity to become familiar with congestive heart failure. This is a complicated condition that is sometimes difficult to manage. Your first questions is an excellent question, one that is extremely important when caring for these individuals with congestive heart failure. Without complete understanding of congestion heart failure, patients are frequently readmitted due to poor medical management. Caring for these individuals usually focus on treatments including the delicate balance of intake and output, medications and diagnostic testing. Your question regarding how CHF has impacted a person’s life focuses on the psychological aspect of this condition. Although

History: Martha Wilmington, a 74-year-old woman with a history of rheumatic fever while in her twenties, presented to her physician with complaints of increasing shortness of breath ("dyspnea") upon exertion. She also noted that the typical swelling she's had in her ankles for years has started to get worse over the past two months, making it especially difficult to get her shoes on toward the end of the day. In the past week, she's had a decreased appetite, some nausea and vomiting, and tenderness in the right upper quadrant of the abdomen.

Congestive Heart Failure is when the heart's pumping power is weaker than normal. It does not mean the heart has stopped working. The blood moves through the heart and body at a slower rate, and pressure in the heart increases. This means; the heart cannot pump enough oxygen and nutrients to meet the body's needs. The chambers of the heart respond by stretching to hold more blood to pump through the body or by becoming more stiff and thickened. This only keeps the blood moving for a short while. The heart muscle walls weaken and are unable to pump as strongly. This makes the kidneys respond by causing the body to retain fluid and sodium. When the body builds up with fluids, it becomes congested. Many conditions can cause heart

Congestive heart failure is an older name for heart failure. Congestive heart failure takes place when the heart is unable to maintain an adequate circulation of blood in the bodily tissues or to pump out the venous blood returned to it by the veins (Merriam-Webster). The heart is split into two distinct pumping structures, the right side of the heart and the left side of the heart. Appropriate cardiac performance involves each ventricle to extract even quantities of blood over intervals. If the volume of blood reimbursed to the heart develops more than both ventricles can manage, the heart can no longer be an efficient pump.

Diastolic heart failure is also known as heart failure with preserved systolic function or heart failure with normal ejection fraction. Diastolic heart failure can occur alone or with systolic heart failure. Approximately 550,000 individuals in the United States are diagnosed with heart failure and half of them have diastolic heart failure. Diastolic heart failure is mainly common in elderly people with age of 65 or older. Also, it is mainly diagnosed in women than men (Huether and McCance 2012).

Next, the second most important is the symptoms of congestive heart failure. With aging and having congestive heart can have many symptoms that will go unnoticed. Some symptoms are severe and sometimes congestive heart failure can come and go. The symptoms include shortness of breath, chest pain, congest lungs, fluid and water retention, dizziness, fatigue, weakness, and rapid or irregular heartbeats. During congested lungs fluids are the backup that causes shortness of breath and will cause a hacking cough or wheezing. However, fluid and water retention giving less blood to the kidney’s, resulting having swollen ankles, legs, abdomen, and weight gain. Also includes more urination during throughout the night. On the other hand, the symptom

Diagnosed with Congestive cardiomyopathy implies that the patient’s heart muscle has been debilitated by ailment and cannot sufficiently pump blood through the heart, which can lead to heart failure (“Columbia University Medical Center”, 2016). In this case study, the current situation of a male patient Mr. P., who is 76 years old, and frequently hospitalized with CHF is given. The purpose of this paper is to describe an approach to care with treatment plan recommendation, provide education to both the patient and his family, and a teaching plan.

Not every gift has to be expensive or extravagant. In other words gifts can come in many different shapes and sizes. There is one really big gift that not just me but my whole family received. In the summer of 2011 my mother was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. If we would have not got the gift of the doctors that would even help us. Later that year in August my mother underwent surgery, to get a pacemaker and a defibrillator. I remember the day that I was told like it was yesterday, I got home from school and my mother had been crying. I asked her what was wrong and she explained to me that I she has a heart condition and that the doctor didn't know if they would be able to fix it. As it was explained to all of us the left side of

Heart failure describes the heart’s inability to function properly, meaning the heart is unable to pump efficiently throughout the body. Thus causing the heart to work extra hard in order to compensate the body’s needs, but this ultimately leads to failure. And due to Mrs. Harris’s hypertension and alcohol consumption, she is now displaying signs and symptoms of congestive heart failure, as both are major risk factors. Heart failure can be seen in the left side, which is also known as congestive heart failure, and the right side of heart. The left side is typically the first side to fail, as the left ventricle is the heart’s largest chamber and the most powerful.

Congestive heart failure is a chronic disease that requires daily monitoring and life style management. Affecting the elderly, and their family the adjustment is a challenge. Daily life skills include the monitoring of daily weights, intake and output, and a low sodium diet. The person with congestive heart failure is generally admitted to the hospital for medication adjustments when their symptoms increase. The patient is often times short of breath, with a decrease in energy and an increase in their weight. The patients are generally elderly 60-65 years of age or older, and when comparing African Americans to Caucasians the African Americans have a 1.5 greater chance of developing heart failure ("Heart Failure," 2017). The