Heart to Heart

There are hundreds of stories around the world of couples, happily married for decades who, in old age, die within hours or days of each other. Take for example the case of Judy and Will Webb from Michigan who, at the age of 77, started to experience almost identical severe health issues. The couple who had been married for 56 years eventually died in hospice care on the same day from their illnesses. There are also similar cases of non-romantic pairs such as Carrie Fisher and her mother Debbie Reynolds. On 27th December 2016, Carrie Fisher died following a cardiac arrest. The following day her mother Debbie Reynolds, who she had an intense but close relationship with, died of a brain haemorrhage. Following their deaths, Reynolds son Todd Fisher said, “she wanted to be with Carrie”.

In the 1990s, Japanese scientist Dr Hikaru Sato began to identify signs and symptoms similar to a heart attack in people, usually women, who had recently experienced acute emotional stress. The condition became known as taktsubo cardiomyopathy, stress cardiomyopathy or broken heart syndrome. Although this condition is reversible and rarely results in death, bereavement or grief can cause serious physiological changes, some of which may be fatal. During times of increased stress, such as the death of a loved one, the body mounts an acute stress response including a surge of adrenaline, increased heart rate and blood pressure and reduced immune function. This may last for 6 months or a number of years. What is it that can cause a couple or close loved ones to die within hours or days of each other? The answer may not be taktsubo cardiomyopathy but it may still lie in the heart.