Heart Bypass Patient

[wifeatwitsend]

My husband (age 47) suffered a heart attack in 2006.  When at the hospital he was told for the first time that he had diabetes and probably had for a while.  He also learned that based on the damage to his heart that this was probably not his first heart attack.  His heart muscle was so damaged and weak that at one point it was at 8% capacity.  The team of cardiologists told me that they weren't sure if he'd survive a surgery.  So we waited and they pumped him with meds to make his heart function better.  They finally decided that they would do a high risk bypass surgery.  My husband ended up getting 6 bypasses.  He has not been the same since his surgery.  Instead of getting better, I think he feels worse.  Just last month, he was told that his heart was functioning at 25%.  He is growing increasingly tired.  It's getting to the point to where he doesn't think that he will be able to continue working.  He's discussed this with his cardiologist; however, he does not seem too concerned about it.  Should be be concerned?  Is there some form of treatment or proceedure that we should discuss with the cardiologist?  

[wifeatwitsend]

Thank you for your reply to my post concerning my husband.  Your words do offer me some encouragement.  I did not realize that it would take so long to recover.  My guess is that his diabetes will hinder his recovery.  Hopefully this will be a temporary situation and he will continue making recovery.

[kenkeith]

For a perspective, your husband's heart has muscle damage due to heart attacks and the damage causes weak contractions.  There is a measurement to reference the degree of disability of the heart's functionality.  The measurement is the ejection fraction (EF) and indicates the amount of  the left ventricle's capacity of blood pumped into circulation with each stroke.  An EF25% (your husband's reading) is below 29% and in the heart failure range.  The weak contractions from muscle damage will cause fatigue, etc. and sometimes depression as well that compounds the problem.  Diabetes is another problem that may interfere with medical therapy and is an unfortunate circumstance.  An EF less than 29% is considered a disability with most insurance policy provisions!

An EF25% may be temporary and the doctor may believe it will be increase with medication.  Four years ago, I was hopitalized with an EF below 29% and a cath showed 13%.  With medication it is now normal.

Medication to help the heart function may be successful by lowering the resistance of  constricted vessels, reducing fluids, increasing heart contractions, controling heart rate, etc. The medication will provide time for the heart to gain some strength, but there is an estimate of about 25% of the heart population that is in heart failure range and don't know they have a problem!   So it is possible to function adequately with an EF 25%... it depends on the individual and how well they are able to compensate.