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Question:
What does it mean to be "in failure"?
My mom has congestive heart failure. She has been sick for a week. Doctors told her it was seasonal flu and bronchitis, her cough has not gotten better so she went back to urgent care and was told she was in-failure, and she had too much fluid in her body so they upped her water pill. What does in-failure mean?
submitted by Alie from Oregon, on 10/29/09
Answer:
by Texas Heart Institute cardiologist, J. Alberto Lopez, MD
The heart is a pump. Its function is to receive the used blood returning from the different organs, limbs, head, etc; to pump it to the lungs to get reoxygenated; and to receive the blood from the lungs and pump it through the body to deliver the oxygen. If the heart is not able to do this job, blood (fluid) builds up and accumulates in the lungs, causing shortness of breath, cough, wheezing; and accumulates in the limbs causing swelling. That is called "Congestive Heart Failure".
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Updated November 2009
