According to the doctor, the patient revealed that the boyfriend told her that he was not going to be able to see her for Valentine’s Day because he was going to leave her for his true love. The physician told us that the patient had a hard time informing him about the phone call due to uncontrollable crying. The patient shared that the precipitating event was a very disturbing phone call from her boyfriend which occurred one day before Valentine’s Day. He shared that the patient was a single school teacher. He shared details of his conversation with the patient after she was admitted for observation when all the testing was done. The presenting physician then shared the most interesting part of the presentation. The echocardiogram showed characteristic ballooning of the left ventricle of the heart consistent with the diagnosis of Broken Heart Syndrome. The patient then had an echocardiogram, which is a test allowing visualization of the heart. To the surprise of the healthcare providers, there was no blockage. The patient was sent to the cardiac catheter lab for a test examining the blood flow to the blood vessels supplying her heart. On the initial evaluation, the possible diagnosis of heart attack was established due to symptoms, an abnormal EKG, and elevated cardiac enzymes. She reported to the emergency room with symptoms of chest pain and shortness of breath. I listened closely as the presenting doctor read the report of our single 52-year-old patient. Initially, I thought the doctor was kidding, but we learned that this is a true condition recognized by the American Board of Cardiologists. On this particular occasion, we learned about a patient who had suffered Broken Heart Syndrome! This was my first experience with gaining knowledge and understanding of this condition. Grand rounds were times during my training when all the medical students would come together with the experienced doctors to learn about cases in the hospital. I also remember being reintroduced to this song when one of our attending doctors began singing it during grand rounds one morning. I remember listening to this song prior to attending medical school. These lyrics were from a famous 90’s song by the artist Billy Ray Cyrus.
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