What Is The Survival Rate After A Heart Failure?

Posted on Fri, 3 Jan 2014

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Fri, 3 Jan 2014 Answered on

Wed, 22 Jan 2014 Last reviewed on

Question : my mother is 67 and has never smoked or drank alcohol.She is in stage 3 chf and has both right and left sided heart failure. She had an icd implanted April 2011, started having shortness of breath upon little exertion in Early 2012, she's mobile, and she's been dx'd with scleroderma and 2 clotting disorders.She's on many prescriptions. Her edema and diruretics have increased and she's been hospitalized twice in past 17 months for decompensation, once for sepsis and once for Warfarin toxicity. Realistically, what is her life expectancy?

Answered by Dr. Pavan Kumar Gupta (2 hours later)

Brief answer....5year survival rate with heart failure is 50% Detailed answer.... Hello, Thanks for the query. I really feel very sorry that your mother is facing so many of health issues at one time. Usually patients suffering from heart failure die within 1st year of their diagnosis and overall mortality is 50% within 5 years. In spite of proper medication,disease usually worsens because power and co-ordination of pumping action of heart further declines and life threatening heart rhythm disturbances develop.Although defibrillators like ICD do help In preventing sudden cardiac death but are not the complete answer as there are various other symptoms of heart failure and other issues. I assume that you must have definitely asked your treating doctor about the prognosis of your mother and he probably must have told you that there is no real way of knowing it or say anything about it. At the end I would say that your mother should receive all type of medical as well as all the personal love and care of all of your family members.Give her all your love so that her journey in last leg of her life is smooth.This becomes even more important when you are dealing with serious and chronic health condition. Pray to god and give your best to your mother as in ultimate sense,no doctor can actually predict the actual number of months or years a sick person has. I hope it helps,however you may revert to me for any further query. Best of luck Thanks

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar