You Can Die Of A Broken Heart

Doctors have discovered what artists have always known…

it is possible to die from a broken heart.

The symptoms seems to mimic a heart attack, but there is no evidence of coronary disease.

Read on for some Valentine’s inspired science.

The Wall Street Journal had a touching story about a woman who witnessed her husband’s death:

Dorothy Lee and her husband of 40 years were driving home from a Bible study group one wintry night when their car suddenly hit the curb. Mrs. Lee looked at her husband, who was driving, and saw his head bob a couple of times and fall on his chest.

In the ensuing minutes, Mrs. Lee recalls, she managed to avoid a crash while stopping the car, called 911 on her cellphone and tried to revive her husband before an ambulance arrived. But at the hospital, soon after learning her husband had died of a heart attack, Mrs. Lee’s heart appeared to give out as well. She experienced sudden sharp pains in her chest, felt faint and went unconscious.

When doctors examined her, they determined that she had broken heart disease, also called stress-induced cardiomyopathy. It is estimated that 1-2% of people (and 6% of women) diagnosed with a heart attack are actually suffering from this rare syndrome.

Dorothy survived her attack and managed to recover enough to attend her husband’s funeral a week later.

During the episode the left ventricle changes shape. It was first identified by Japanese researchers in the 1990s who called it “tako-tsubo,” named for a vase like pot used to trap octopuses that it resembles.

(Our more scientifically inclined readers may want to read the article directly).