Her dog died, and doctors say it literally broke her heart

[Disir]

Joanie Simpson woke early one morning with a terrible backache. Her chest started hurting when she turned over.

Within 20 minutes, she was at a local emergency room. Soon she was being airlifted to a hospital in Houston, where physicians were preparing to receive a patient exhibiting the classic signs of a heart attack.

But tests at Memorial Hermann hospital revealed something very different. Doctors instead diagnosed Simpson with Takotsubo cardiomyopathy, a condition with symptoms that mimic heart attacks. It usually occurs following an emotional event such as the loss of a spouse or child. That link has given the illness its more colloquial name: Broken-heart syndrome.

In Simpson’s case, the event that she says tipped her over the edge was the recent death of her beloved Yorkshire terrier, Meha.

..You've probably heard it in the movies - a person becoming so sad that they die of a "broken heart." While it's not usually a fatal event, there is such a thing as Broken Heart Syndrome. Dr. Steven Nissen, a cardiologist at Cleveland Clinic, says Broken Heart Syndrome most often occurs after a person has suffered an extreme emotional experience and the symptoms mimic those of a heart attack.
Her dog died, and doctors say it literally broke her heart

MMS: Error.

I had no idea that was real.

 

[ABikerSailor]

Yep, it's a real thing. People can get to the point that they love something or someone so much that when it is taken away, they feel actual physical pain.

I know that I hurt like hell when I transferred out of Norfolk and left some very close friends behind. Didn't kill me, but I was walking around with an empty feeling in my stomach in chest for a couple of days.

And even Scrubs, and House have done episodes on this syndrome.

 

[OnePercenter]

She was a pet PARENT. Key word PARENT.

 

[Bruce_T_Laney]

Joanie Simpson woke early one morning with a terrible backache. Her chest started hurting when she turned over.

Within 20 minutes, she was at a local emergency room. Soon she was being airlifted to a hospital in Houston, where physicians were preparing to receive a patient exhibiting the classic signs of a heart attack.

But tests at Memorial Hermann hospital revealed something very different. Doctors instead diagnosed Simpson with Takotsubo cardiomyopathy, a condition with symptoms that mimic heart attacks. It usually occurs following an emotional event such as the loss of a spouse or child. That link has given the illness its more colloquial name: Broken-heart syndrome.

In Simpson’s case, the event that she says tipped her over the edge was the recent death of her beloved Yorkshire terrier, Meha.

..You've probably heard it in the movies - a person becoming so sad that they die of a "broken heart." While it's not usually a fatal event, there is such a thing as Broken Heart Syndrome. Dr. Steven Nissen, a cardiologist at Cleveland Clinic, says Broken Heart Syndrome most often occurs after a person has suffered an extreme emotional experience and the symptoms mimic those of a heart attack.
Her dog died, and doctors say it literally broke her heart

MMS: Error.

I had no idea that was real.

It is real...

I have read where a spouse has died right after their loved one passed...

Love is strong and can kill you...

 

[EvilCat Breath]

I just wanted to die when I lost Arwen. I sometimes cuddle her ashes.

But, shortly after she passed, Henry needed me to save his life. He's old, sick and no one else wanted him.