A 93-year-old woman died of Takutsubo syndrome, also known as Broken Heart Syndrome, just months after she was robbed by three men.
Betty Monroe's house in Northampton was broken into the back door on June 11 at around 11 pm, where the men told Betty that they were police officers, before they stole her bag, bank cards, a gold chain around her neck and all her jewelry, including her late husband's watch. .
Shortly after the incident, Betty's health began to deteriorate rapidly and she was diagnosed with PTSD after repeated nightmares, difficulty sleeping, as well as illness.
After the accident, she spent a long time in hospital with heart problems. She was eventually diagnosed with Takutsubo disease and died yesterday, the Ladebaebel website reported.
Broken heart syndrome often occurs as a result of the heart's reaction to the burst of stress hormones. This condition is also called katutsuboi cardiomyopathy, balloon apex syndrome or tense cardiopathy.
According to the British Heart Foundation, this syndrome occurs when the left ventricle, one of the chambers of the heart, becomes larger and changes shape, which in turn means "this part of the heart does not pump blood to the rest of the body."
My family issued a statement saying the thieves had stolen lives.
"The painful circumstances of the death of our beautiful mother caused a lot of sadness. Before the robbery, she was happy and lived in her independent home for 56 years," the statement said.
Police appealed to the public to help track down the thieves.