BALTIMORE — Valentine's Day is a day when many people spend it professing their love for their significant other with a heart, but one Harford County woman's love of animals caused her to end up in the hospital suffering from what doctor's call “Broken Heart Syndrome."
Broken Heart Syndrome is a rare but dangerous heart condition that caused a 37-year-old woman's heart to mysteriously stop beating.
Dani Collins loves to surround herself with animals. she was volunteering at a clinic where animals are spayed or neutered, when a nurse tech brought out a cat to tip its ears
“As soon as she cut the cats ear like I felt lightheaded, dizzy, nauseous. I told her I was like ‘oh I think I’m gonna pass out I need to sit down,’” Collins said.
The animal caretaker now needed care herself. Collins recalls how she began to vomit, developed a headache, and her vision became spotty. She decided she needed to go home.
“I was trying to go to sleep and I kind of felt like indigestion pain,” Collins said.
She tried to ignore it, until she sat up in bed, which also woke her husband.
“Like I couldn’t breathe at that point. I was in a lot of pain, you know. It was in my chest area, so I was really starting to get a little worried that you know, something was really wrong,” Collins said.
Her husband, Matt Gardner, took her to University of Maryland Harford Memorial Hospital.
“Once I woke up, and she said it was chest pains, I was very happy that I made the decision I did to take her to the hospital. Even driving there, you’re thinking, never expecting your wife to be having a heart attack at this age” Gardner said.
Collins lost consciousness. The emergency team tried for 75 minutes to resuscitate her. She was helicoptered to the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore for more advanced cardiac care.
“I asked for somebody to call my daughter and then they said right after I asked for them to call my daughter, they said you know my heart stopped,” Collins said.
Cardiologist and University of Maryland School of Medicine professor Dr. Stephen Gottlieb explained collins suffered Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy also known as a ‘Broken Heart.’
At 37 years old and no history of heart trouble, doctors eventually learned the trigger. the adrenaline rush Collins experienced as she saw vets at the animal clinic prepare a cat for surgery.
“It’s only recently been even realized that there’s such a thing as Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy but we now know that some people for various different types of shocks can develop really severe heart dysfunction,” Dr. Gottlieb said.
“It does seem to be related to adrenaline, which is the bodies ‘fight or flight’ response. So, when you are being chased you, you can develop real strength from adrenaline. That’s the good thing but on the other hand a lot of adrenaline can also done the heart and actually causes the heart to really stopped working,” Dr. Gottlieb added.
While Dr. Gottlieb said the situation usually reverses itself, it serves as a reminder to everyone to listen to their body.
“Because if you don’t, minutes matter. Because if I had waited, or if I hadn’t woken up, you know, who knows how that night could have turned out” Gardner said.
National Library of Medicine review on Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy.
