Heart Failure Overview - Detailed - Medical Animation
This animation may only be used in support of a single legal proceeding and for no other purpose. Read our License Agreement for details. To license this image for other purposes, click here.
Heart Failure Overview - Detailed - Medical Animation
MEDICAL ANIMATION TRANSCRIPT: Your heart is a muscular organ that pumps blood containing the oxygen and nutrients your body needs. The pumping sections of the heart are: the right atrium, right ventricle, left atrium, and left ventricle. In your heart, oxygen-poor blood flows from your body through large veins into your right atrium. Next, your blood moves into your right ventricle, which contracts, sending blood out of the heart to pick up oxygen from your lungs. Oxygen-rich blood moves out of your lungs into your left atrium, then moves into your left ventricle. Finally, your left ventricle contracts, sending oxygen-rich blood out of your heart to your body. If you have heart failure, your heart has lost the ability to pump enough blood to meet your bodys needs. You may have weak or damaged ventricular walls that are not able to push enough blood out of your heart. You may also have stiff and thickened ventricular walls that do not allow your heart to fill with enough blood. If you have left-sided heart failure, your left ventricle does not deliver enough oxygen-rich blood to your body, making you feel tired and out of breath. Your failing left ventricle also increases the blood pressure in the blood vessels between your lungs and left ventricle. This increased pressure forces fluid out of your blood and into your lung tissues, which makes it difficult for you to breathe. If you have right-sided heart failure, your right ventricle is unable to contract with enough force to push blood to your lungs. The result is a buildup of blood in your veins, which causes a buildup of fluid, called edema, throughout the tissues in your body. Over time, heart failure on either side of your heart results in weakened,enlarged ventricles that deliver less blood to your body. To make up for the decreased amount of blood, your nervous system releases stress hormones that increase the speed and force of your heartbeat. Unfortunately, the continued release of these stress hormones makes your heart failure worse because they damage the muscle cells in your ventricles. The most common cause of heart failure is coronary artery disease. Other causes that damage your heart and lead to heart failure include: high blood pressure, diabetes, diseased, infected, or damaged heart valves, diseased, infected, or damaged heart muscle, irregular heartbeats, called arrhythmias, heart defects, poisons or substance abuse, lung diseases, and breathing problems during sleep, called sleep apnea. Treatment for heart failure includes medications, lifestyle changes, or, in extreme heart failure, heartbeat-assisting devices or surgery. Diuretic medications reduce the swelling in your body by increasing the amount of urine produced by your kidneys. ACE inhibitors are medications that allow your blood vessels to expand. This helps decrease your blood pressure and prevents further damage to your heart by making it easier for your heart to pump blood. Beta-blockers are medications that block the effects of stress hormones on your heart. Although beta-blockers slow down your heartbeat, they are mainly used to protect your heart muscle from the long-term damage caused by stress hormones. You may need to make some lifestyle changes, including: exercising on a regular basis, maintaining a healthy weight, quitting smoking, limiting salt and alcohol, and eating a heart-healthy diet. Surgeries for advanced heart failure include: coronary artery bypass surgery to improve blood flow to your heart muscle, heart valve reconstruction surgery to improve blood flow through your heart and left ventricle reconstruction surgery to remove damaged heart muscle. Surgeries for extreme heart failure include: insertion of a device to help your heart pump blood, and heart transplant
"This past year, your company prepared three medical illustrations for our cases; two in which we received six figure awards; one in which we received a substantial seven figure award. I believe in large part, the amounts obtained were due to the vivid illustrations of my clients' injuries and the impact on the finder of fact."
Donald W. Marcari Marcari Russotto & Spencer, P.C. Chesapeake, VA
"At 3 PM it hit me--I needed exhibits of a tracheostomy, a coronary artery
bypass and a deep vein thrombosis--all in time for a for-trial video
deposition the next day. The Doe Report had each exhibit on line. In
addition, I ran across an exhibit I hadn't even thought of: reduced ejection
fraction after a heart attack. Because this was a video deposition, I could
use the e-mail version of the medical exhibit, print it on my color copier,
and let the camera zoom in. For $400, less than one blow-up by one of The
Doe Report's competitors, I got four first-rate exhibits in less than a day.
The Doe Report saved me time and money."
"Our firm was able to settle our case at an all day mediation yesterday and
I am confident that the detail and overall appearance of the medical
illustrations significantly contributed to the settlement. When we require
medical illustrations in the future, I will be sure to contact [MLA]."
Noel Turner, III
Burts, Turner, Rhodes & Thompson
Spartanburg, SC
"It is with great enthusiasm that I recommend Medical Legal Art. We have
used their services for three years and always found their professionalism,
quality of work, and timely attention to detail to exceed our expectations.
We recently settled two complicated catastrophic injury cases. One medical
malpractice case involving a spinal abscess settled for 3.75 million and the
other involving injuries related to a motor vehicle accident settled for 6.9
million. We consider the artwork provided by MLA to have been invaluable in
helping us to successfully conclude these cases.
I highly recommend MLA to anyone seeking high quality, detailed medical
legal artwork."
E. Marcus Davis, Esq.
Davis Zipperman, Krischenbaum & Lotito
Atlanta, GA www.emarcusdavis.com
Medical Legal Art creates medical demonstrative evidence (medical
illustrations, drawings, pictures, graphics, charts, medical animations,
anatomical models, and interactive presentations) for use during legal
proceedings, including research, demand letters, client conferences,
depositions, arbitrations, mediations, settlement conferences, mock jury
trials and for use in the courtroom. We do not provide legal or medical
advice. If you have legal questions, you should find a lawyer with whom you
can discuss your case issues. If you have medical questions, you should seek the advice of a healthcare provider.