Mother Diagnosed with Broken Heart Syndrome After Son’s Suicide

A British mother who feared she was having a heart attack discovered she was suffering from broken heart syndrome, a physical manifestation of her grief following her veteran son’s suicide last year.

Dawn Turner, 57, from Eckington in Worcester, U.K., experienced “unbearable” chest pains last month that prompted her to call an ambulance. Initially believing she was experiencing cardiac arrest, Turner was surprised when hospital doctors diagnosed her with takotsubo syndrome (TTS), commonly known as broken heart syndrome.

“I was sitting downstairs earlier that night and thought I had a bit of indigestion,” Turner recounted. “I went to bed and just couldn’t get comfortable—I was breaking out in a sweat and had heart palpitations.”

When the pain spread to her arm and jaw around midnight, Turner’s partner Paul called emergency services. Paramedics arrived within minutes and connected her to an ECG, noting her irregular heartbeat before rushing her to the hospital.

After blood tests revealed she lacked the enzymes typically present during a heart attack, additional tests and a consultation with a cardiologist led to her diagnosis of takotsubo syndrome.

“I told the doctor that my heart feels broken. I told her about Rob, and she said it’s exactly that,” Turner explained. “She said it’s a real thing, and that I’d been under so much stress. The body can only take so much, and the grief and the stress can be quite physical.”

Takotsubo syndrome is a temporary, reversible heart condition often triggered by extreme emotional or physical stress. It primarily affects women over 50 and mimics heart attack symptoms, including severe chest pain and shortness of breath. The condition causes the heart’s main pumping chamber to change shape, enlarge, and temporarily weaken.

Turner’s son, Rob Homans, took his own life in August 2025 after struggling with mental health issues. He had served 10 years in the U.K.’s Royal Horse Artillery, including two tours in Afghanistan, before returning to civilian life in 2016. After his military service, he began experiencing various health problems.

“When he left the army, he got married, and they settled down in London. He walked straight into a job as a delivery driver. But then his health took a downward spiral,” Turner said. Her son was eventually diagnosed with PTSD, though she noted his symptoms may have been similar to those of mild traumatic brain injury. She added that he was deaf in one ear from his military service.

Turner, who serves as CEO of veterans charity Stepway, expressed frustration over the delays her son faced while trying to access healthcare services. “When people lose loved ones, you’re obviously distraught, but you eventually find closure,” she said. “I found peace when I lost my sister in 2015. But with Rob, I can’t find closure because there’s no justice there.”

Medical research published in the European Heart Journal in March 2019 has linked broken heart syndrome to the brain’s response to stress, finding that the condition stems from how the brain communicates with the heart during intense emotional events.

Turner’s doctors have advised her to rest, seek counseling, and make lifestyle changes to reduce stress. She is now on the mend and expects to fully recover within a few weeks, as her cardiologist confirmed her heart itself is healthy with no permanent damage, though it will take time to “reboot.”

“Until that moment, I had never really understood that a person could become so overwhelmed by stress and grief that it physically affects the heart,” Turner shared. “Broken heart syndrome can look and feel like a heart attack. It was a warning sign for me, and for anyone.”

In a poignant moment, Turner’s partner suggested that her heart’s extra beat might be for her son. “Maybe the extra beat is for Rob. You are carrying on living for him,” he told her—a sentiment that Turner said “broke me and healed me a little bit all at once.”