Raising awareness of heart failure symptoms will help save lives
Specialist hospital staff are making people more aware of the symptoms of heart failure.
As part of European Heart Failure Awareness Week (6-12 May), staff at the world-renowned Essex Cardiothoracic Centre at Basildon Hospital are asking staff and visitors to bang a drum, symbolic of the noise of a beating heart.
Dr Henry ​Oluwasefunmi Savage, consultant cardiologist and heart failure lead at Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Heart failure is a treatable condition. Advances in research have led to a wide range of therapies that are now available for heart failure patients.
“This has meant better outcomes in these patients. But key to that success – like with treating cancer – is spotting it as early as possible.”
Those symptoms – as highlighted by the British Society for Heart Failure - are fighting for breath, feeling fatigued and fluid retention. People with those symptoms are being advised to speak to their GP to see if it could be heart failure.