Congestive heart Failure

[blsaidel]

My mother is 75 and has been in the hospital several times in the past 8 months.  She has congestive heart failure and the keep her a couple of days and send her home.  She's in the hospital again and they are giving her blood transfusion and have a catheter to remove fluid from her lungs.  She doesn't go to a cardiologist and her doctor doesn't seem to take her condition seriously.  She was sick before her yearly visit with us this past fall and her doctor didn't see her, but just ordered antibiotics for her.  They live 14 hours from us and they got almost here and she couldn't breathe.  Called 911 and they got her breathing and the next morning she got here and she was immediatley admitted to the hospital.  What should I do.  She won't change doctors, but I think she needs to see a cardiologist.  She lives in a small town and healthcare is not much better than a bandaid station.

[Dr J Singh]

Hi,
She appears quite sick and it does make sense that she has got someone closeby. Well, seeing her condition, she’ll need repeated hospitalizations. She definitely needs a consultation by a cardiologist and an assessment of her heart functions like ejection fraction and to find out the cause of her CHF. She also may need cardiac catheterization to find out the status of the coronary arteries. She needs a good care and probably a regular nurse to take care of her.
I sincerely hope that helps. Please do keep me posted. Kind regards.

[Encephalomalcia]

If her CHF is advanced and she has had it for a number of years, then what happens in the person is in and out of the hospital a lot in their last year of life.  With her having blood transfusions, sounds like she has had this for years.  There is little doctors can do, but to drain the fluid off from IV Lasix.  Does she have a pacemaker?  Doctors know how long a person has to live.  Our doctors told my mom 6 months to a year and in six months, she was gone.  The main thing is to keep the water off.