The Enlarged Heart

[Kenken666]

My Mum is 94 years old. Since she had a pelvic surgery from a fall 4 yrs ago she has been finding difficulty in walking and has been on wheel chair ever since. She was admitted to a local hospital today this morning due to breathing fast and becomung breathless when she started talking Xray reports show lung infection and heart enlarged with some white patches seen. . Her BP is 160 no coughing - now being monitored at the hospital. Could our health professionals here advice on my mum's case ? Thank you.

[mrsmummy]

There are no health professionals on here, just members who have a lot of experience of living with a medical condition which affects their lungs. For medical advice you need your own doctor or you can give the BLF nurses a ring on 03000 030 555. They are there Monday to Friday during office hours.

[Jessy11]

Welcome to the forum Kenken. I'm sorry to hear about your Mum being admitted to hospital.

I'm afraid we are not health professionals here. We can only advise you & offer the hand of friendship.

If you phone BLF on 03000 030 555 tomorrow you can ask for advice from the nurses on duty .

Hope your Mum is comfortable & gets well soon 🌻

[sassy59]

Thinking of you and your dear mum. Xxxxx

[JonathanPittsCrick]

Her heart being enlarged on chest X-ray doesn't necessarily mean it's the cause of her breathlessness but, depending on how big it is, it could mean it's not working perfectly – not surprising at the age of 94. They will probably arrange an echocardiogram (heart scan) for her which will show if there's a real problem with it.

The first thing it to treat the chest infection (which may have temporarily upset her heart as well) and then see if anything else needs to be done about the heart once the chest is clear. It's not unusual to get problems with heart arrhythmias (especially atrial fibrillation) or fluid build-up (sometimes called heart failure though that's often not the cause) at her age, especially in connection with a chest infection, but they are usually easily treatable with mild regular medications.