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Grieving mom hospitalized with rare ‘broken heart syndrome’ after veteran son’s suicide
A distraught mother who thought she was having a heart attack was instead hospitalized with broken heart syndrome — otherwise known as takotsubo syndrome (TTS) — less than a year after her veteran son tragically took his own life.
Dawn Turner, 57, of the U.K., lost her son in August of last year.
Just last month, the mom of three awoke with “unbearable” chest pains, she said — and called an ambulance, worried she was going into cardiac arrest. But when she arrived at the hospital, doctors told her she was suffering from the effects of grief caused by a broken heart, as news agency SWNS reported.
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TTS is a temporary, reversible heart condition often triggered by extreme emotional or physical stress, such as grief, fear or severe illness, according to experts.
Symptoms usually mimic a heart attack, with sudden and severe chest pain and shortness of breath the most common — and it primarily affects women over the age of 50.
Turner, of Eckington in Worcester, said, “I was [sitting] downstairs earlier that night and thought I had a bit of indigestion. I went to bed and just couldn’t get comfortable — I was breaking out in a sweat and had heart palpitations.
“Then, around midnight, I had pain down my arm and in my jaw. I was still putting it down to indigestion … My partner Paul asked me if I was all right, and I said, ‘I think I’m having a heart attack.'”
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She said she couldn’t catch her breath — “and my heart felt as though it was missing a beat and then [started] thudding again. For those moments, I truly believed I was having a heart attack.”
She said her partner called emergency services, and an ambulance arrived within five minutes.
“They came in and linked me up to an ECG. They said, ‘Your heart is all over the place — there’s an extra beat, and it’s all over the place,’” she said, as SWNS reported.
Turner was rushed to the hospital by ambulance.
In emergency care, Turner was also given blood tests.
She added, “They came back and said I didn’t have the enzymes produced from a heart attack in my blood. But they said there [was] something going on.”
After undergoing more tests and seeing a cardiologist, Turner was told she had takotsubo syndrome.
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“I told [the doctor] that my heart feels broken. I told her about [my son] Rob, and she said it’s exactly that. 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.”
Turner’s son committed suicide in August 2025 after struggling to get help with his mental health.
He spent 10 years in the Royal Horse Artillery after joining in 2006, when he worked as an artilleryman.
He did two tours of duty in Afghanistan, she said, and returned to civilian life in 2016 before suffering several worsening health conditions.
Turner, who is also the CEO of a veterans charity called Stepway, “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, and he started having digestive troubles.”
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He was eventually told he had PTSD — but those symptoms may be similar to those of mild traumatic brain injury, Turner said.
“He was deaf in one ear from using the guns,” she said. “He realized he was putting so much pressure on his marriage, so he moved back up with me. He started to build himself up — then COVID hit.“
Turner said there were unfortunate delays as her son tried to get access to various services and facilities.
“When people lose loved ones, you’re obviously distraught, but you eventually find closure,” she said, per SWNS. “I found peace when I lost my sister in 2015. But with Rob, I can’t find closure because there’s no justice there.”
Turner is now on the mend and hopes to be fully recovered in a couple of weeks, SWNS reported.
“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,” she shared. “Broken heart syndrome can look and feel like a heart attack. It was a warning sign for me, and for anyone. It can change the shape of one of your heart chambers … it can cause some serious damage.”
She added, “The cardiologist told me that thankfully, my heart itself is healthy and there was no damage, but that it will take around two weeks to a month for my heart to reboot itself.”
Turner was told she needed to rest, seek counseling and make lifestyle changes to reduce stress.
“Things have settled down, and I’m taking things easy — I’m pacing myself now, and I feel a lot better. Paul said, ‘Maybe the extra beat is for Rob. You are carrying on living for him.'”
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Turner said, “That broke me and healed me a little bit all at once.”
Fox News Digital previously reported that broken heart syndrome, which causes the heart to temporarily weaken, has been linked to the brain’s reaction to stress, as studies have found.
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In an article published in the European Heart Journal in March 2019, Swiss researchers said they found that the syndrome is linked to the way the brain communicates with the heart.
Caused by intense emotional events, TTS is a rare, temporary condition that weakens the left ventricle and disrupts its normal pumping function.
The syndrome causes the heart’s main pumping chamber to change shape and get larger. The heart muscle becomes weaker, and its pumping action loses strength.
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Symptoms include sudden, intense chest pain, pressure or heaviness in the chest, along with shortness of breath.
It is treated with beta blockers and blood-thinning medicine to reduce risks of clots and other flareups.
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Mississippi middle schoolers stop runaway bus after driver loses consciousness from asthma attack
A group of Mississippi middle school students jumped into action this week to stop a school bus after the driver lost consciousness on a highway, preventing a potential crash.
About 40 students from Hancock Middle School were on board when their driver, Leah Taylor, 46, suffered an asthma attack shortly after leaving campus, according to The Associated Press.
Taylor attempted to grab her medication but passed out before she could reach it.
Without hesitation, the students sprang into action to keep the bus from crashing.
Sixth grader Jackson Casnave, 12, who was sitting behind the driver, noticed the bus begin to swerve. He rushed forward to grab the wheel and called for help.
“I didn’t have time to process my emotions,” Casnave said. “I just wanted to make sure that nobody got hurt.”
Darrius Clark, who is also 12, then hit the brakes, and the students steered the bus to a median and brought it to a stop.
Clark’s sister, Kayleigh, 13, called 911, later saying she struggled to hear the operator over the screams from classmates.
“I was scared, but also I had to help,” Kayleigh said.
Eighth grader Destiny Cornelius, 15, saw the driver holding a nebulizer and helped administer the medication, while 13-year-old McKenzy Finch assisted.
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Finch also noticed the driver’s phone ringing and alerted the district’s transportation team about what had happened.
Taylor, who has since made a full recovery, praised the students for their actions.
“I’m grateful for my students,” Taylor said. “They’re the ones that saved my life and everybody else’s on that bus.”
The students were honored at a school pep rally Friday and are set to receive a celebratory lunch next week, The AP reported.
“What they did took courage,” the school’s principal, Dr. Melissa Saucier, said. “They didn’t wait for somebody to step in, they stepped up themselves, and that says a lot about their character.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A shooting near President Donald Trump and several Cabinet members Saturday night is putting a spotlight on the Secret Service’s funding shortfall amid an ongoing standoff in Congress.
A gunman opened fire outside the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner at the Washington Hilton in Washington, D.C., where celebrities, members of the press and administration officials had gathered, prompting a swift security response. The suspect is in custody and has not been identified. One Secret Service agent was reportedly shot in their protective vest but is uninjured.
The incident unfolded near a security screening area, prompting a rapid response from Secret Service agents and law enforcement.
The shooting comes amid a more than 60-day funding stalemate in Congress over the Department of Homeland Security — a lapse driven by Democrats blocking funding bills and rejecting multiple GOP-backed proposals to reopen the department.
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The funding standoff centers on disputes over immigration enforcement policy and has raised concerns about resources for agencies including the Secret Service, FEMA and the U.S. Coast Guard.
The Secret Service, which is responsible for protecting the president, vice president, their families and other senior U.S. officials, along with visiting heads of state, has faced growing demands in recent years.
The incident adds to a growing list of threats against Trump, including two confirmed assassination attempts and a recent incident involving an armed intruder at Mar-a-Lago.
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Senate Democrats declined to fund DHS through regular appropriations earlier this year following a deadly January incident involving immigration officers, triggering a funding lapse that has now stretched beyond 60 days. Negotiations remain stalled. Democrats are seeking changes to DHS operations, while Republicans are relying on alternative funding to continue enforcement.
Republicans are also considering funding the department for the remainder of Trump’s term through budget reconciliation, the same process used for immigration funding last year.
The shooting also comes as the Secret Service faces increasing pressure during a high-threat election cycle.
Last week, Secret Service Director Sean Curran warned lawmakers the agency is not adequately staffed to handle the demands of the upcoming FIFA World Cup, the 2028 Olympics and the 2028 presidential cycle, underscoring mounting concerns about staffing and resources.
As more details emerge from the investigation into this latest shooting, questions continue to mount over whether the Secret Service has the resources needed to handle an increasingly complex threat environment.
President Donald Trump gave rare praise to the press in the aftermath of shots fired at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner Saturday night that led to the evening’s rescheduling.
“This was an event dedicated to freedom of speech that was supposed to bring together members of both parties with members of the press, and in a certain way it did, because the fact that they just unified,” Trump said at a White House press briefing. “I saw a room that was just totally unified. It was, in one way, very beautiful, a very beautiful thing to see.”
Trump’s comments came after he confirmed that the dinner would be canceled in accordance with security protocol despite how he “fought like hell” to have it continue. He reiterated his intention to have the event rescheduled within the next month.
An assailant rushed security at the Washington Hilton Saturday night, shooting a Secret Service officer, who was hit in his bulletproof vest and survived. The suspect was apprehended and has been charged with multiple felonies. The gunfire led to Trump and the Cabinet at the dinner being evacuated, and the dinner will be rescheduled.
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Adding to the strangeness of the scene at the White House, Trump and many of the White House figures and reporters in the room were still wearing tuxedos and dresses after coming from the black tie dinner.
“I think it’s very important that I say, though, and I told the representatives of the evening they did such a beautiful job. It was such a beautiful evening. And again, they’re talking about free speech in our Constitution. That’s what it’s all about, not just White House correspondents. It was really based on free speech in our Constitution. But I said very importantly that we’ll do it again within the next 30 days. And we’ll make it bigger and better and even nicer. So I just want to thank everybody that was involved. I also want to thank the press, the media. You’ve been very responsible in your coverage. I will say I’ve been seeing what’s been out, and you’ve been very responsible,” Trump said.
Trump also took questions from members of the press. The first was from White House Correspondents’ Association president Weijia Jiang, where he took the opportunity to compliment the CBS correspondent for the evening.
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“I just want to say you did a fantastic job. What a beautiful evening. And we’re going to reschedule. And after that, it’s very tough for her to ask a killer question, but you have done a fantastic job,” Trump said.
Jiang asked Trump his thoughts in the moment as the chaos unfolded, given his experience with assassination attempts. Trump said it was always a shocking event, no matter when it happened.
Trump also shared an image of the suspect being arrested from his Truth Social account.
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Trump, first lady Melania Trump and the rest of the president’s Cabinet were rushed from the head table after shots rang out. The site of the Washington Hilton was also the location of the assassination attempt against President Ronald Reagan in 1981.
Trump announced last month that he accepted the invitation to attend this year’s dinner, explaining that the country’s 250th anniversary influenced his decision.
Trump’s attendance marked the first time he had been present at the event as president in either term. Trump previously attended the dinner as a private citizen in 2011, when he was famously roasted by then-President Barack Obama.
Trump faced two assassination attempts in 2024, including one in Pennsylvania when an assailant’s bullet grazed his ear.
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