heart problems

[viv28]

my mother who is 86 has just been diagnosed with 20% heart function. She has 3 blocked arteries and has been told because of her age they wont operate. They will manage it with medication. She has been very healthy up until now. What do you think her survival rate will be.    

[viv28]

I am not exactly sure what tests she had. I know she had an IV and was hooked up to several monitors. He seemed to know straight away by looking at screen her heart was only functioning on 20%.
What do you think her chances are without stents or surgery just medication? She has no other health issues and is pretty fit all things considered.

[ed34]

Just to add. Fitting stents is not surgery in the sense that you open a patient up. They simply make a 1cm incision at the top of the leg, or in the arm, and everything is guided up to the heart through the arteries. No pain, no infection complications and the heart can start to recover almost immediately.
What type of test did your Mother have to determine the blockages? Maybe she had an Angiogram then? or was it a CT scan?

[ed34]

I saw consultant cardiologists at 9 different hospitals and not one had the expertise or confidence to even attempt removing my blockage using stents. The blockage was an inch long at the top of the left artery and every cardiologist estimated it as too risky. They quoted a 20% chance of death.
I then approached a research/teaching institute in London where the professors work and managed to persuade one cardiologist to look at my coronary artery images. He called me in for a chat and said "I've looked at your arteries and I can open your blockage if you like, this afternoon". I was shocked and asked him the risk. He said "I have to give it a risk factor by law, so I'm not allowed to say zero, say I will say 1%". That afternoon he opened my left artery and stented it from top to bottom. I did question why he was so confident and he said "I grew up with balloons and stents, I fitted the first stent in the UK and helped to develop the technology. If you like, I was one of the parents developing this child". During the procedure I noticed the other 9 cardiologists in the side room observing everything being done, watching the so called impossible being performed. Whatever a cardiologist tells you with regards to intervention is always based on their own personal experience and confidence. It can't be based on anything else.

[viv28]

My mother saw a top cardiologist at a private hospital. Mum would not consider surgery anyway.

[ed34]

Here in the UK it would simply depend on the severity of the disease. Opening arteries can only give improvement. If the disease is too bad to stent and give benefits, then bypass is considered. I have met an 80 year old patient here who had bypass surgery and is still doing well.

[Occupant]

I don't know how they handle cases like that in the U.K., never mind Australia. I can only relate to what happened to an aquaintance of ours here in the States. She was 81 years old and went to the hospital with Angina, they said, you have blocked arteries and there is nothing we can do and sent her home. Six months later she was back. They were going to sent her home again, but her husband objected: "She is still sick and can't go home like that." She died in the hospital several days later. This happened before somebody invented the term "Death Panels" referring to the comprehensive medical treatment overhaul that say
call "Obamacare".

[patvl]

ed34 is right, ask about stents, or, I think the term is angioplasty ( not sure of the spelling, but it's a procedure to open blocked arteries)

[ed34]

I am a bit confused. Because of her age, they will not operate?  Is this bypass surgery they are referring to? If there is triple artery disease, I find it hard to swallow that they can't open one of them up at least, using stents. This would give the opportunity for collateral vessels to open up and improve the situation. Perhaps the hospital you visited doesn't have the right skill levels. I had the same situation and I just asked the cardiologist "You obviously don't have the confidence, and skill set, so can you please recommend someone who DOES". I was then given names of various top players in a training hospital/college.