Recently, I had the opportunity to review a possible case for a referring lawyer. It appeared to be a “typical” severe, car crash case. The main question that the referring lawyer wanted to solve involved an insurance matter related to the case.
As I began to read the medical records, I suddenly realized that this “typical” case was far from that. I also realized that answering an insurance question paled in comparison to what I was about to tell the referring lawyer. Deep within the records was one phrase that changed the case; the phrase was “Takotsubo cardiomyopathy”.
The emergency room physician in this particular crash noted some very acute and serious changes on the patient’s EKG. He compared this to a prior baseline EKG and, with the help of the cardiologist, determined that the extreme stress from this very serious crash had caused this woman to suffer from Takotsubo cardiomyopathy or, more commonly known as, “broken heart syndrome”.
Yes, you can suffer a broken heart from a traumatic emotional event that can kill you. This type of cardiomyopathy is not fully understood but it is thought to involve inappropriate constriction of the coronary arteries due possibly to an abnormal response to catecholamine release. For more on this topic please click on the following link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takotsubo_cardiomyopathy
If you have any medical related questions in your cases whether they involve personal injury or otherwise I would be glad to try and help out.
