Heart Failure Unfiltered | When Heart Failure Came Home

A heart failure diagnosis doesn't just happen to one person - it happens to the whole family. So why does it so often take a crisis before anyone gets the diagnosis right?

In this first episode of a two-part series, Nick Hartshorn-Evans - founder and CEO of the Pumping Marvellous Foundation - turns the mic on his own family. At 39, Nick was rushed to hospital with organs shutting down before finally being told: "you've got heart failure." Fifteen years on, he sits down with his wife Karen and daughters Natasha and Anastasia to relive the missed symptoms, the frightening hospital stay, and what it was really like watching a husband and father become critically ill without warning.

Together they unpack the GP visits that missed the signs, the terrifying nights of hallucinations, how a new puppy became an unlikely lifeline, and the different ways children and adults process a frightening diagnosis. It's a raw, funny, and honest look at what happens when heart failure comes home - essential listening for patients, families, and anyone who has ever sat by a hospital bed not knowing what's next.

This is part one of a two-part series.

In this episode:

00:00 — Welcome & what this series is about

00:22 — The question this series keeps asking: beat the diagnosis

00:52 — Marvellous myth buster: can symptoms improving mean you're cured?

01:09 — Meet the family: wife Karen and daughters Natasha & Anastasia

02:07 — The day our family changed forever

02:15 — A frozen house, a new puppy and the first warning signs

03:41 — Struggling to breathe and missing the classic symptoms

04:51 — A&E dismisses it as "pregnant woman syndrome"

05:41 — The little green men: hallucinations begin

06:38 — "You're going to hospital" — the turning point

08:44 — Kidneys and liver failing, doctors baffled

11:33 — Diagnosed: "you've got heart failure"

15:09 — Telling two young daughters without scaring them

16:10 — A puppy, school runs and holding the family together

17:26 — Did the NHS miss the warning signs at home?

18:49 — Reading heart failure leaflets: "you're going to die"

19:29 — What the girls actually remember from hospital

20:51 — Would Google and AI have changed how scared they felt?

23:16 — Driving home after hearing the words "heart failure"

24:14 — The worst days: fluid overload and a wheelchair to the bathroom

24:44 — Was there even time to be afraid?

28:58 — Marvellous myth buster: why do we say "failure"?

31:08 — What "heart failure" meant to a five-year-old

32:08 — Sisters, secrets and sweets from WH Smith

36:26 — Nick turns the questions back on Karen

39:38 — Living with an ejection fraction of 15–20%

41:45 — Why Nick didn't want his daughters to see him that ill

44:07 — What Nick wishes he'd understood sooner

47:37 — Would they tell the girls differently if they were teens?

50:46 — Life on the cardiology ward: unforgettable characters

52:23 — Closing thoughts and where to find support

🫀 If heart failure is part of your life, you don't have to face it alone.

The Pumping Marvellous Foundation is the UK's leading heart failure charity — patient-led, trusted, and here for you.

🔗 Visit: www.pumpingmarvellous.org

💛 Donate £5 today and help someone feel less alone

#HeartFailure #HeartFailureAwareness #PumpingMarvellous #HeartFailureUnfiltered #FamilyStory #HeartFailureDiagnosis #HeartHealth #PatientAdvocacy #CardiacCare #NHS #HealthAwareness #ChronicIllness #CaregiverSupport #HeartDisease #UKCharity #PublicHealth #MentalHealthAndIllness #HospitalStory #HeartTransplant #CardiologyCare