A missed penalty kick triggered coronary death in the husband and broken heart syndrome in the wife

Abstract

Events that induce emotional stress and frustration in a large number of subjects under specific circumstances, such as earthquakes, war conditions, and sporting occasions, may increase the incidence of cardiovascular events, such as acute myocardial infarction, arrhythmias, and sudden cardiac death. This report describes a married couple who expressed an apparently passionate interest in football with hazardous consequences after a tense football match during the FIFA 2014 World Championships. A series of emotional stressors initiated by defeat in this football game lead to cardiac arrest in a 58-year-old man caused by a thrombotic occlusion of the left anterior descending artery and ending in the death of the patient. An hour and 15 minutes after the onset of cardiac arrest of the patient, his 64-year-old wife also had chest pain caused by an acute midventricular takotsubo syndrome. She survived the acute stage of the disease, and there was complete resolution of the left ventricular dysfunction.