Congestive Heart Failure Fast Facts:

• Greater than 5.8 million Americans are affected by CHF. (Hamner, 2005, p. 175)

• According to Tompkins & Orwat (2010, p. 312), there are more than 400,000 new incidents of CHF reported annually.

• Coronary artery disease is the leading cause of congestive heart failure, accounting for approximately two thirds of all cases. (McMurray, 2010, p. 228)

• According to the American Heart Association, (as cited in Tompkins & Orwat, 2010, p. 312), after reaching the age of forty the risk of developing CHF is one in five.

• Heart disease is the leading cause of death for men and women. Women comprised 50% of these deaths. (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2010)

• Congestive heart failure affects 10% of Americans aged 70 years and older (McMurray, 2010, p. 228)

• Effective treatment has reduced mortality in CHF by 20-30% since 1990 (McMurray, 2010, p. 228)

I have Congestive Heart Failure. What does this mean?

Congestive Heart Failure is "the inability of the heart to maintain adequate cardiac output to meet the metabolic needs of the body because of impaired pumping ability" (Silvestri, 2008, pp. 870).

When I was a nursing student, the words "Congestive Heart Failure" were foreign to me. I created an example that helped me to learn how Congestive Heart Failure affected the body by using an automobile as an example. As a disclaimer, I should mention that I'm no mechanic and just recently learned how to change my own tire!

In this example, we will consider our heart as the fuel pump in our vehicle. The fuel pump delivers gas to make a vehicle run, just as the heart delivers essential nutrients and oxygen to our bodies to function properly. When the fuel pump is weak or ineffective, the lack of circulating gas causes the rest of the car to run poorly. Likewise, poor circulation of oxygen causes your body to become weak or fatigued. The fuel pump becomes flooded if it has more gas than it can circulate and causes major engine problems! The heart becomes "flooded" when it receives too much fluid to circulate, causing problems to your "engine" components" (your liver, lungs, kidneys, and extremities for example) when the fluid backs up. Your heart then begins to compensate for these changes. This is Congestive Heart Failure.