Woman Dies of Broken Heart Syndrome

Broken Heart Syndrome. Is that even a real thing?
In 2019, a 65-year-old Italian woman went to her local dentist to take a tooth out. It was supposed to be a minor oral surgery. She didn’t even need to be put under — just local anesthesia around the tooth, and it gets plucked out.

No big deal, right?
Except for the fact that she fainted right after the dentist numbed her up. Maybe the dentist assumed it was because she wasn’t good with needles. But it quickly became clear that something much more serious was happening because she soon went into Cardiac Arrest. And as EMTs frantically attempted to revive her, the most urgent questions became, what was happening to her? And why?

This was no HEART ATTACK.
This was something different. Harder to spot, more challenging to diagnose. But equally as dangerous. This was a real case of Broken Heart Syndrome.

“Broken Heart Syndrome” is a medical mystery that, let’s be real, sounds kinda fake. In addition to tracing the story of our Italian dental patient, we’re going to discuss how Broken Heart Syndrome was discovered, what it looks like, and who is at risk.

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🩺 Ask Doctor Hansen:

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Your heart has 4 chambers, divided into left and right atrium and left and right ventricles. Separating them are valves. What you need to know is that the biggest chamber, the left Ventricle, is responsible for pumping oxygen-rich blood past the aortic valve and delivering it to all the organs of your body, except the lungs. Notice the shape of the Left Ventricle. What does that shape look like to you?

Here comes your fun fact.
Takotsubo in Japanese?
Breaks down into:
Tako - Octopus
Tsubo - Pot

Takotsubo actually isn’t a medical term. It’s a type of pot used by Japanese fishermen. When Japanese doctors first observed this condition, they took one look at that Left Ventricle and said, “Hey, that looks like one of those pots that catch octopuses!” But that’s what it looks like. Broken Heart Syndrome causes the Left Ventricle to swell up like a balloon down below, with a narrow neck above.

This takes us back to our 65-year-old Italian woman. How do we know she was suffering from this? Seven years before, she’d been admitted into the hospital with symptoms of chest pain and fainting. At the time, her echocardiogram, meaning an ultrasound of the heart, revealed that her left ventricle wasn’t pumping so well, and it also showed that the LV was ballooning down below with a narrowed neck.

More recent research has revealed that statistically, physical triggers cause a higher percentage of cases than emotional ones. A multi-year study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that physical triggers, like accidents, broken bones, head trauma, major health complications like pneumonia or drug withdrawal, and surgery, are present in 1/3rd cases. Which is about the same number for emotional triggers as the cause. Also, about 1/3rd of cases have no apparent trigger at all. And this is a diagnosis that can be pretty tricky to pick up on. Chest pain, nausea, fainting — those symptoms can occur with a much more common diagnosis, a heart attack. But while a heart attack involves the blood vessels in your heart getting blocked by plaque buildup, this is entirely different. And just as the Italian woman had done twice before when she was hospitalized for those symptoms, doctors need to image your heart by performing an echocardiogram, coronary angiography, or MRI to make the distinction.

But who is actually more likely to get this syndrome?
In a survey of over 1,700 patients with Broken Heart Syndrome, nearly 90% were women. Women are nine times more likely than men. Age is the other big one. The average age is 67. Patients with Broken Heart Syndrome were twice as likely to have been diagnosed with a neurologic or psychiatric disorder. Yeah, over half of the patients had a history of mental issues, which happened with this lady. At the dental appointment, she was taking benzodiazepines for an anxiety disorder.

But even if you fall into all of these demographics, that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll get it, so just how common is it?
Between 2006 and 2017, slightly under 140,000 cases of Broken Heart Syndrome were reported in the United States. That’s about 13,000 cases a year. But keep in mind that increasing awareness of this condition means that the number of cases diagnosed every year is increasing. And because Broken Heart Syndrome is so hard to distinguish from a heart attack, many cases still go misdiagnosed, whether as a different acute coronary syndrome or sometimes as a simple panic attack.

- Doctor Mike Hansen

[DoctorMikeHansen]

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[mermer]

Broken Heart Syndrome is very real. I experienced it myself for about 7 months and was very afraid that my heart was being damaged. It hurts physically. Feels like your heart is being crushed by some unknown force. Thankfully I worked through my grief and the pain stopped.

[peachion]

I believe this. After a breakup 20 years ago. I’ve never been the same. Developed tachycardia

[ineedgunslotsofguns]

My mum developed this after a period of extreme stress. They checked her arteries and they were totally clear. She was only in her late 40s at the time. After about four years her heart returned to normal function.

[andratoma]

Broken heart syndrome has been with us since the beginning of the world!

[absinthealice]

My mother in law passed in November 2015. It was Broken Heart Syndrome. Her husband passed in February of the same year. Her death certificate listed inanition. She slowly stopped eating, consumed by depression. They had both recently retired. She was 65, he was 76. My husband and I were helpless, as she wouldn't/couldn't listen to either of our pleas. 💔😔

[patriciap.]

Very interesting. My best friend died of a broken heart a year after his daughter died. That’s what the doctors listed as the cause of his death. This was in the early 1990s.

[seasonschange]

This is absolutely true. My thoughts are the stress of being separated from your partner in any form either dying or your partner leaves you. Divorce has caused this and should be considered in my opinion as abuse. Because this action causes a HUGE LIFE EMOTIONAL SITUATION AND IN SOME CASES A REAL PHYSICAL STRESS
Where financially a person can be devastated. The other cause can be if your partner develops Alzhimers Dementia it has the same effect because taking care of that individual is nothing but stress and unless someone has experienced this most People have no idea.

[ashleyg]

Thank you so much for sharing this! It is very real. I’m so very thankful that my PCP recognized it! Constantly living in right or flight mode can cause a multitude of health issues. I’m living proof!

[sharonstanley]

I asked my doctor in 1995 if he thought a person could die of a broken heart. I had to answer the question myself. I said, I'm here to tell you they can. Due to stress in the family when my mother died, I felt as though hands were on either side of my heart, pulling it apart, tearing the fibers. I could feel that for a long time. Now (2022) I have been diagnosed with A-Fib.

[angeleyesrb]

I think that is what I had . My blood pressure was 195/145for a year and started having chest pains, literally in my heart! A specialist told me my heart was fine but it was stress… and it would kill me. I left him 3 weeks later … Blood pressure went down to normal. I had tow “ panic attacks “, as well… according to the dr. I know mine is triggered by emotions!!

[GrayS]

Yes, it is a real thing. I am living with it, after being emotionally abused by my son. My health has been much worse after that. 😥

[Holly-days]

Yes, it’s real…. We had a couple in our neighborhood just suddenly die, one after the other a month apart, each of sudden cardiac events.

[marcellajohnson]

This is what I experienced back in 1999 when my infant son died. This lead me to create The Comfort Cub, a weighted Therapeutic Teddy Bear, that was invented to heal a broken heart. I started a nonprofit that offers these teddy bears as a gift to those who are suffering from a broken heart. Go to The Comfort Cub website and at the top "Apply for A Cub" so we can help you. Thank you!

[OskarGibson]

As soon as I saw the title in my feed I immediately said "Takotsubo cardiomyopathy", then clicked on the video and was like "any second now .."; there we go, boom, I said it

[Gigi-vqxs]

What a great informative video. Another lesson we learned. Thank you.

[MFLimited]

There are a bunch of people in the comments saying “ oh, I have this” or “ I think I had that last year… I got better…it felt like crushing pain”.
It sounds like they’re diagnosing themselves smh. 🤯 It definitely sounds like they were never treated. I wish people would listen to the video.
You have to see a cardiologist if you suspect you have any problem with your heart. Crushing pain could be a Myocardial infarction (a.k.a. heart attack). The fact is most people do not know the difference between a heart attack, cardiomyopathy, heart failure, cardiac arrest, or an arrhythmia. But they don’t need to. If there’s something wrong with your heart, you need to go to the hospital. Professionals will use EKGs, echocardiograms, full blood labs, and possibly MRIs to know what’s wrong with you. Things like Takotsubo cardiomyopathy is something usually treated with medication’s like benzodiazepines, beta blockers, ace inhibitors, and sometimes blood thinners.
If you have not been properly diagnosed and treated, you cannot say that you “had it“.
Please don’t go to YouTube to diagnose yourself. Use it to educate yourself.

[loridyson]

Had the most painful heart attack 6 months ago & after a echo gram, was told I had this. I also had to have a stent put in to open up a artery & seal a tear. Bruised heart muscle for 5 months but now better & can walk a mile without pain.

[rileysmith]

I'm going through it now.its been just over 6 weeks since my wife of 33 years of marriage. My chest hurt non stop for over a month and daily have shortness of breath

[alexanderm.]

You have always supported the vaccines. What are your thoughts about the Swedish studie which have shown, that die mRNA can be copied in the DNA of the liver?