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I noticed that George Michael died of heart failure. As far as I understand it, this is a generic term for death. Perhaps the actual cause will be revealed at s

• chillydawg 10y ago
  Seems quite likely it was drugs or suicide.
• jonwachob91 10y ago
  > heart failure. As far as I understand it, this is a generic term for death It's not. The generic term for death is death. Heart Failure is a real condition. A heart attack could be compared to a circuit overloading, while heart failure can be compared to lose of power.
• drbawb 10y ago
  Nah, my grandpa and mom both suffered from heart failure and lived to tell the tale. My grandpa went on to live another 7 years after his heart failure to the age of 79. (Which I find fairly remarkable honestly.) Meanwhile my mom is still kickin. My understanding is a heart attack refers specifically to a blockage in the heart, some combination of narrowing arteries, a blood clot, etc. Heart failure just refers to an inefficiency of the heart to pump blood. It's caused more by things like arrhythmias, issues w/ blood pressure, etc. It seemed to me that the heart attack was the more serious of the two, as I believe it's more closely linked to tissue death. As I understood it: the heart attack weakened my grandfather's heart and left him more vulnerable to heart failure.
  • elastic_church 10y ago
    Heart Failure, Cardiac Arrest, Heart Attack, etc All colloquially used as synonyms. All different. I couldn't tell you which is which. Seems like its different between areas of the medical field as well. So thats problem number 1.