Understanding Heart Failure Prognosis: What to Expect

Question
Hello,
someone I know has a relative with congestive heart failure, people who are in and out of the medical field, I mean medical in the sense they are LPNs or RNs..telling her that a person does not live long. But someone told her they knew 3 or 4 people with this condition, and had it for years.  They were told it could be 3 yrs. or 10 yrs. This friend of mine is upset about this and doesn't know who to believe.   wondering what the proper answer is to this.
thank you.

Answer
CHF-congestive heart failure is not a specific disease, it is a condition that results from any number of diseases, some with the heart, blood, kidneys, etc.  So you can't make a general rule if you don't know what the underlying disease is.... if it is coronary disease, that tends to be bad, because the coronary disease progresses.... if it is from something like rheumatic heart disease as a child, it can be stable for decades..... hope this helps....