My father died from cardiogenic shock in July. I was wondering could there have been something I couldve done to prevent this? I am living with a lot of guilt bec I went to nursing school and never saw this coming. His ejection fraction was only 15 %
Hi welcome to Chat Doctor. I understand your query and concern. Your father symptoms are suggestive of Congestive cardiac failure leading to pulmonary edema and cardiogenic shock thereby death. Congestive heart failure has poor prognosis in all cases if the ejection fraction is under 30%. If he had got urgent hospitalization he would have recovered.It's always advisable to keep the blood pressure under 130/80 mm of Hg. I advise my patients to have a baseline 2 dimensional echocardiography, ECG,HS CRP and lipid profile to assess the basic cardiac reserve of your heart to avoid these complications. Restrict the intake of salt to less than 6gm/day. Chat Doctor. Semiannual follow-ups are advisable on maintenance for people who have crossed 40s is helpful. Once the above measures are carried out, good survival can be expected. Consult a Cardiologist for further expert management. Post your further queries if any. Thank you.