my mother 61 yrs old has end stage congestive heart failure,her defibrilator has gone off three time, she has been admitted to the hospital several times, only to go home and get more fluid ongathered around her abdominal area approx-20lbs in a week- then go back hospital get some iv lasix , which is not working that well, and dobutamide iv. She is becoming confused at times, very depressed, and has pulmonary hypertension -secondary to end stage chf..also her ejection fraction is 15%, she cant take a step without becomng short of breath and has severe pain in her legs now, also she has diabetes 2, hypothyroidism and rheumatoid and osteo arthritis...ALL I WANT TO KNOW IS how much longer approximately can she go on like this? its not getting any better just worse, and they cant do a LVAD or a transplantation...so what the heck should we do, and why wont they (cardiologist order hospice?)
His am sorry but EF 15% and her symptoms are indicative of class 4 congestive cardiac failure, prognosis is few months on medication, however miracle do occur so don't lose hope, she is a candidate for LEAD and cardiac transplant, but it can't be done let's have hope that medicines help her, however 15% EF is very critically low EF, and slowly she will decorate leading to cardiac arrestsorryso try for LEAD, you have not entered her medication, but I feel Chat Doctor.