What's broke

Simple Anatomy

I'm the kinda guy who, when a body part breaks, wants to know more about what's going on. Just in case you might also be curious about the inner workings of the human heart (your heart included), here's a bit of what I found out.

A heart is a pretty amazing pump. It collects blood with low oxygen levels from

the body and then pumps it into the lungs. Breathing adds fresh oxygen to the blood which then returns to the heart to the Left Atrium. When enough blood is there and the pressure is right the Mitral Valve opens and the oxygenated blood is pushed through the valve into the Left Ventricle.

The Mitral Valve shuts and stays closed (ideally) while the Left Ventricle gives a powerful squeeze and shoots the red blood through the aortic valve into the Aorta and throughout the body.

Stinking amazing how all of the parts and pieces work together opening, closing, squeezing, relaxing in a constant coordinated cycle. It is really quite a stunning piece of equipment.

So what's up with a severe mitral valve regurgitation?

The basic problem is that the valve isn't shutting properly. When the left ventricle then goes to squeeze blood out through the aorta to the body, the mitral valve allows some back-wash. Some of the oxygen rich blood which was waiting to be sent off from the atrium ends up being pushed back into the atrium.

This means the body gets less oxygenated blood. Ah ha ... which explains why I felt like I wasn't getting enough oxygen; it wasn't my lungs, though, it was my heart.

Why does this happen? The short answer is that we really don't know for sure why it happens. It possibly has something to do with genetics. It has little, if anything, to do with lifestyle. Dr. Maitland suggested that there's nothing I could have done differently to have prevented this. It was just the luck of the draw.

That's actually comforting to know.