re: Mike Leach in critical condition, unknown medical event.

I will be 49 this year and was diagnosed with CHF about 6 years ago. I take several meds a day and have a BIV/ICD implant. When diagnosed, my ejection fraction was 18 %. Anything over 55% is considered "normal". My last echo, about a year ago, showed me at a 56%. I can do pretty much anything I did before most days.

You are correct, in that, it does occur over time but it isn't always debilitating until it gets really bad and can be easily overlooked at first. I never had any major symptoms until about a couple months prior to being diagnosed. At that time, I started with light respiratory issues and excessive coughing, especially when exerting or during lengthy conversations. Ths coughing eventually lead to bringing up small volumes of bloody sputum. I went to urgent care where they did x-rays that showed fluid on my right lung. They diagnosed me with walking pneumonia, treated me with steroid shot, breathing treatments, etc. I got much better then almost exactly 2 weeks later started feeling it come on again.

Went back to same place to try and get ahead of it. Based on my age and being back so soon,they sent me to the ER where they did all the proper diagnostics and then i ended up in the hospital for a week diagnosed with CHF.

I said all this based on some of the visual symptoms coach has shown over the last few months or so. It is reasonably possible that he's had lighter symptoms that he (or even his Healthcare providers) chalked up to something else and it really hit him hard recently.