WTAE-TV Medical Editor Marilyn Brooks reports that there is a national campaign to educate and raise awareness of how to prevent heart failure. The Heart Failure Society of America is behind the campaign. Usually, blood is pumped through the heart and into the lungs where it picks up oxygen. It returns to the heart to be pumped back into the body.
Damaged hearts are less efficient, so less blood is pumped through the muscle.
It backs up into veins and organs, such as the lungs. Eventually its chambers stretch, enlarge, tire and weaken. Symptoms include shortness of breath, swelling of the legs and overwhelming fatigue. Brooks reported that, while heart attack is the main culprit for heart failure, there are other causes as well. There is no cure.