ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Congestive heart failure symptoms can present in a lot of different ways. For 72-year-old Richard Brunson, the disease took away his ability to walk freely. He now relies on a walker or cane to help him around.
“[The doctor] says ‘your heart’s working so hard to try to get through the veins in your legs,’ ” he recalled.
“Congestive heart failure is a really challenging problem, both for patients and really for society. It’s very costly. Patients end up in the hospital,” explained Dr. Scott Feitell, director of heart failure at Rochester General Hospital. “When you have congestive heart failure, essentially the heart’s not pumping enough blood to meet the body’s needs. And part of that is when the heart can’t pump the blood, it has a tendency to back up the system. So they end up with fluid in their lungs, their belly, their legs to really just become a water balloon.”…