Heart failure: it’s time to finally change the F-word
One of the organisers of an upcoming medical conference on heart failure told me that the theme of this meeting ‘was intended to provide hope’. Noble intention, indeed. Yet that’s the problem with the name heart ‘failure’. By definition, it s tough to ‘provide hope’ while continuing to tell freshly diagnosed heart patients that their hearts are ‘failing’. I often hear from my readers who have sat through that life-changing conversation with their cardiologists. Those who have heard the diagnosis firsthand almost always compare this frightening moment to a ‘death sentence’. Here’s a fairly typical narrative, for example, from one of my readers explaining her own moment: > The doctor kept on talking but I couldn’t seem to understand another word after I heard ‘heart failure’. I honestly felt like I was going to pass out or vomit, or both. > > Failing? My heart is failing?! I left his office and then very slowly I walked out to the parking lot, but I was too afraid to get into my car and