Texas woman suffers from 'broken heart syndrome' after her dog dies

[Eugene]

Source: New York Daily News

Texas woman suffers from ‘broken heart syndrome’ after her dog dies

BY
CONSTANCE GIBBS
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Friday, October 20, 2017, 6:10 PM

Losing a pet can be heartbreaking — literally.

A Texas woman suffered “broken heart syndrome” after the death of her dog, Meha.

According to the case study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Joanie Simpson woke up experiencing chest and back pain she thought might be a heart attack. Doctors later realized that rather than a heart attack, Simpson was experiencing a literal broken heart, also called Takotsubo cardiomyopathy.

The condition mimics the symptoms of a heart attack: the chest and back pain Simpson experienced, shortness of breath, and an elevated cardiogram and cardiac enzymes. It doesn’t, however, include clogged arteries consistent with a heart attack.

Simpson, 62, told the Washington Post that Meha died of congestive heart failure not long before her hospital visit. Without her children in the house, she said, the dog had become like another daughter, and Meha’s death was not peaceful.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/woman-suffers-actual-broken-heart-dog-dies-article-1.3577581

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Related: Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy (New England Journal of Medicine)

[shenmue]

1. Le sad

[irisblue]

2. Wow

Can I relate.

[BigmanPigman]

3. I am sure this happens more often than people realize.

When people experience extreme pain and loss it effects them physically. Often couples divorce and often people become very ill when a spouse or child dies. Pets are as close to some people as a child or spouse. The loss is devastating and is manifested in many ways. My dogs are like my children. When mine died at home 15 years ago it was easily the single most devastating event that I have ever experienced. I dread the time when my little one dies (she is 14 1/2).

[Stonepounder]

4. I read someplace (can't find it now)

That for older empty-nesters or single people living alone suffer the loss as much as, if not more, than a parent or other relative. We do everything for our pets. We feed them, we worry when they are not feeling well, we keep them close, we take care of them. They are with us 24 hrs a day. They never date, go out with friends, or come home after curfew. And when they leave us, we are devastated.

And you know what? We don't need to apologize to anyone about it either. So, yeah, I can easily believe someone getting a 'broken-heart' over the grief.