Congestive heart failure
Heart failure is one of the fastest growing heart conditions in the United States. There are more than five million Americans with heart failure and over 550,000 people are diagnosed with heart failure each year. You are not alone, and Spectrum Health is here to help. Our goal is to provide you with superior quality personal care, working in partnership with you to treat your heart failure.
Heart failure means your heart is not pumping well. Symptoms of heart failure may develop over weeks or months. Your heart becomes weaker over time and is not able to pump the amount of blood your body needs. Your heart may enlarge. When the heart can’t pump as strongly as before, the body can’t get rid of extra fluid. This fluid can leak into the lungs and may cause swelling in the legs, feet, ankles or abdomen.
From prevention to early stage heart failure, rehabilitation, advanced heart failure, mechanical circulatory assist and heart transplant, Spectrum Health offers the only comprehensive heart failure program in West Michigan.
Treatment options
If you're living with congestive heart failure, you know the importance of finding the right specialist. It's an important long-term relationship. The Spectrum Health advanced heart failure program delivers state-of-the-art services you can't find anywhere else in the area. Our heart failure program is the largest and longest-running in West Michigan, and our specialists are leaders and innovators in the field of heart medicine.
Knowing your treatment is geared to help you feel your best both today and in the months ahead is not just encouraging, it's needed. From medications and heart rehabilitation to implantable devices and even heart transplant if you need it, our national recognition becomes real with the ability to change your life.
Starting treatment during the earliest stages of heart failure is critical to getting the best outcome. With regular check-ins and various monitoring techniques, we can help you manage your condition and plan further treatment.
The Spectrum Health Richard DeVos Heart Transplant Program brings outstanding transplant surgeons to you for life-saving heart transplant when all other options are no longer working.
This device combines the steady regulation of a pacemaker with the ability to shock the heart back into rhythm. It is used to treat congestive heart failure as well as arrhythmia, which can lead to sudden cardiac arrest.
This surgically-placed, battery operated pump takes over when congestive heart failure reaches end-stage heart failure. The lower left chamber of the heart is the main pumping chamber. The left ventricular assist device (LVAD) mechanically pumps the blood through this chamber.
Along with very important lifestyle changes, there are a variety of medicines used to help treat heart conditions. Medicines for heart disease are used to ease discomfort or lessen symptoms, but some can also be essential in preventing life-threatening episodes. It is important to take your medicines exactly as prescribed, and work with your doctor on both lifestyle and medicine changes.
Your doctor may recommend a pacemaker to stimulate a faster heart rate when your heart beats too slow and the problem can't be fixed with other treatments.
Make an Appointment
Contact us to learn how to take the next step and get an appointment with one of our specialists.