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Old 09-27-2003, 09:29 PM   #1
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cindeerella29 HB User
Red face 26 yr old male with CHF died.

I have got a question, I am helping my friends parents investigate this. My good friend Mike recently passed away, he was 26, 5'9 205 (when he passed away) 270 (before he got sick). He has had high BP, uncontrolled, no blockage, and he didn't have high cholesterol. He occasionaly smoked weed, and used to drink a lot (a lot meaning an entire bottle of jack daniels). On his death certificate it had said that he passed away from CHF, hypertentison, and cardio myopathy. The ER he had first went to said that he had pneumonia, and sent him home. The next time he went to the ER he was having trouble catching his breath. So the ER diagnosed him with cardio myopathy, they had told him that a virus had attacked his heart. Something just doesn't sound right. I mean towards the end he was having what apperared to be seizures (he would black out and charge at the tv, or pee on the sink) and when the EMT picked him up his pulse was always high (205), sometihng just doesn't sound right. I mean he died in the ER waiting to be admitted, they had revived him once, and the second time they couldn't revive him. Is it possible for a viruse to attack your heart and kill you within 3 months only?? His bp was pretty much fine, it was about 120-140/60-80 pulse was always high well over 100. They did a cardiac catherization on him and found out that he had no bloackage, but, his heart was only working at 10%. If this is possible can someone try to explain it to me.

 
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Old 09-28-2003, 08:41 AM   #2
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projapoti HB User
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The story you tell me sounds pretty accurate, and I'll try to investigate each of your questions.
Quote:
and used to drink a lot (a lot meaning an entire bottle of jack daniels)
Excessive drinking is a very large risk factor for heart tissue damage. This could very well have injured his heart!
Quote:
ER he had first went to said that he had pneumonia, and sent him home.
This is strange....you do have shortness of breath in both CHF and pneumonia, but they look really different on the x-ray. They probably thought it was pneumonia because your friend was so young and CHF is rare in young people.
Quote:
The next time he went to the ER he was having trouble catching his breath. So the ER diagnosed him with cardio myopathy, they had told him that a virus had attacked his heart.
This is weird. I don't think it's really that accurate to diagnose cardiomyopathy in the ER unless they did an ultrasound, which I highly doubt. They are correct about the virus though. A virus known as the coxsackie virus is known to attack the heart.
Quote:
I mean towards the end he was having what apperared to be seizures (he would black out and charge at the tv, or pee on the sink)
This is not surprising. If you have CHF, you are not pumping enough blood to the rest of your tissues. Low blood flow to the brain could mean all sorts of neurological symptoms including confusion and seizures.
Quote:
and when the EMT picked him up his pulse was always high (205), sometihng just doesn't sound right.
This is not surprising either. In CHF your heart is not working nearly at the rate that it needs to--the amount of blood that is being put out is not adequate for the body's needs. His heart was in its last dying effort to pump more blood....it attempted this by beating fast.
Quote:
Is it possible for a viruse to attack your heart and kill you within 3 months only??
Yes....CHF is a pretty deadly disease if not treated. Your friend probably also had some underlying problems with his heart to begin with.
Quote:
His bp was pretty much fine, it was about 120-140/60-80 pulse was always high well over 100. They did a cardiac catherization on him and found out that he had no bloackage, but, his heart was only working at 10%. If this is possible can someone try to explain it to me.
This sounds like a textbook case to me. Do you have any more questions?


 
Old 09-28-2003, 04:00 PM   #3
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cindeerella29 HB User
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I also forgot to mention since he was having difficulty breathing (he could not lie on his back at all, if he did, he couldnt breath), the doc that had admitted him and discharged him sent him home with sleeping pills, anti-seizure meds, lasix which didnt work for him and they gave him shot after shot to try to get the excess liquid out of his body, and also his cardiologist was supposed to go to the hospital to take a look at him but suddenly went on vacation, and so my freind Mike was left with the hospital docs, they had told him he needed a heart transplant, because his heart was only working at 10%, I had never heard of such a virus to attack the heart, I will look it up on the net, the docs told his it was cardiomyopathy, they kept changing their minds while he was in the hospital because they didn't know what was wrong with him. First time he went to the ER his wife drove him, they did a EKG, chest x-ray, TONS of blood work, and sent him home with nothing more than pneumonia (they gave him some meds I can find out what they are but dont know at the moment), then the second time he went to the ER they diagnosed him as having CHF, gave him some lasix and other pills and sent him home. The third time he went by ambulance because he blacked out and rammed the TV and his pulse was extrememly high, at that time they finally admitted him into the hospital. In the hospital they gave him meds to lower BP, and to get rid of excess fluid by wasys of injections, I don't knkow what they gave him but whatever it was made him turn white and almost pass out (they had said he turned white and almost died because they over did it and his heart couldnt take it), while in the hospital they gave him meds for a blood clot which they though he had, but he didn't. Well they sent him home again with more meds, still CHF, and they didn't know what was causing the seizures. Again his wife took him to another ER where they said he had CHF, and they did TONS of tests again to find out it was myocardio, they told him he would need a heart transplant because his heart is only working at 30%. And again he went to the ER where they admitted him again and did a heart catherization, and they said its not 30% but 10% you will need to be on a list to even find out if you qualify for a heart transplant. Well they sent him home until finally on the night of his death he was watching TV with his wife and suddenly got up with a blank look on his face and peed on the stove. He then snapped out of it and chucked and told his wife to call 911 because he didn't know what happened again. So they took him to the ER while he was waiting to be admitted he had died then they revived him, and told his wife to get down there, they did not tell her he had died and they revived him, and that he prolly wasn't going to make it so when she went down there it was too late and he had already passed away. He did have gallstones but NO doc would touch him to take them out. I agree that the doctors should have known what was causing the seizures, they should not have given him sleeping pills. I dunno though It doesn't seem right to mee. As far as all the tests they performed on him, he did say they stuck a meatal rod into his body, is this the heart cath??

 
Old 09-29-2003, 04:46 PM   #4
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projapoti HB User
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Quote:
Originally posted by cindeerella29:
[B]I also forgot to mention since he was having difficulty breathing (he could not lie on his back at all, if he did, he couldnt breath),
Yes...trouble breathing (especially when lying flat) is a classical symptom of heart failure.
Quote:
the doc that had admitted him and discharged him sent him home with sleeping pills, anti-seizure meds, lasix which didnt work for him and they gave him shot after shot to try to get the excess liquid out of his body,
Lasix IS the medication that is given to "get the water out of the body" In heart failure, what happens is, all of the blood that is supposed to be pumped by the heart is backed up in to the lungs and the person has trouble breathing. By giving Lasix, you can make the person pee out a lot of the water and help the symptoms.
Quote:
and also his cardiologist was supposed to go to the hospital to take a look at him but suddenly went on vacation, and so my freind Mike was left with the hospital docs
That's fine...you don't need a cardiologist to treat heart failure.
Quote:
I had never heard of such a virus to attack the heart, I will look it up on the net
Check it out...*****ackie virus.
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the docs told his it was cardiomyopathy
Cardiomyopathy is just a fancy way of saying diseased heart muscle. It is very likely that this is what he had...i.e. his heart muscle was diseased which led to an infection and heart failure.
Quote:
First time he went to the ER his wife drove him, they did a EKG, chest x-ray, TONS of blood work, and sent him home with nothing more than pneumonia (they gave him some meds I can find out what they are but dont know at the moment)
It would be VERY helpful if you got the list of meds 'cause then I can tell you if they thought it was pneumonia or something else. I highly doubt that they'd get pneumonia and heart failure mixed up because the two have very different appearances on the x-ray!!!
Quote:
The third time he went by ambulance because he blacked out and rammed the TV and his pulse was extrememly high, at that time they finally admitted him into the hospital. In the hospital they gave him meds to lower BP, and to get rid of excess fluid by wasys of injections, I don't knkow what they gave him
They probably gave him Lasix (a diuretic) and possibly spironolactone (another diuretic)
Quote:
but whatever it was made him turn white and almost pass out (they had said he turned white and almost died because they over did it and his heart couldnt take it)
You have this backwards. When giving Lasix to help take some fluid out of your system, it's HELPING the heart by lessening the load on it. The thing that causes your heart a lot of strain is giving lots of fluid...not giving diuretics.
Quote:
while in the hospital they gave him meds for a blood clot which they though he had, but he didn't
Did they give him heparin or coumadin (warfarin)?
Quote:
Well they sent him home again with more meds, still CHF, and they didn't know what was causing the seizures.
Well, I think they did....lack of blood flow to the brain due to heart failure can result in seizures.
Quote:
Again his wife took him to another ER where they said he had CHF, and they did TONS of tests again to find out it was myocardio
What do you mean by "myocardio"?
Quote:
they told him he would need a heart transplant because his heart is only working at 30%.
Yeah..this is usually what is done with a young person going in to heart failure.
Quote:
And again he went to the ER where they admitted him again and did a heart catherization,
They did a heart catheterization to find out whether he had heart failure? That doesn't make sense. Heart catheterizations are done to investigate for clots and stenoses in the coronary arteries. Are you sure it wasn't just an echocardiogram?
Quote:
He did have gallstones but NO doc would touch him to take them out.
...and rightfully so. A person with a heart as weak as his was, wouldn't be able to survive the strain of an operation.
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I agree that the doctors should have known what was causing the seizures, they should not have given him sleeping pills.
Well, don't go jumping to conclusions. The sleeping pills were most likely not the cause of the seizures.
Quote:
I dunno though It doesn't seem right to mee. As far as all the tests they performed on him, he did say they stuck a meatal rod into his body, is this the heart cath??
Yeah...the heart cath isn't a metal rod, though...it's more like a thin wire that they feed through your femoral vein in to the heart where they can manipulate the different vessels.


 
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