![[aggregator] downloaded image for imported item #68421](https://newsview.top/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/dawn-turner-picture-son-rob-1024x576.jpg "Grieving mom hospitalized with rare ‘broken heart syndrome’ after veteran son’s suicide")
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A distraught mother who thought she was having aheart attackwas 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 andshortness of breaththe most common — and it primarily affects women over the age of 50.
A mom whose soldier son took his own life feared she was suffering cardiac arrest — only to be told by hospital doctors that she was feeling the effects of grief caused by a broken heart.Dawn Turner, mother of deceased soldier Rob Homans, is pictured above, April 2026.(SWNS)
Turner, of Eckington in Worcester, said, “I was [sitting] downstairs earlier that night and thought I had abit 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.”
“Your heart is all over the place — there’s an extra beat,” Turner was told.
She said her partner called emergency services, and an ambulance arrived within five minutes.
“They came in andlinked 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.
Turner is shown with her son in full dress uniform.He worked as an artilleryman and spent 10 years in the U.K.’s Royal Horse Artillery after joining in 2006.He was battling mental health challenges after his military service, and ultimately took his own life.(SWNS)
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 hadtakotsubo 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, andthe grief and the stresscan be quite physical.”
Turner’s son committed suicide in August 2025 after struggling to get help with hismental health.
He spent 10 years in the Royal Horse Artillery after joining in 2006, when he worked as an artilleryman.
Turner’s son did two tours of duty in Afghanistan, she said.After he returned to civilian life, he began suffering from a number of health conditions.She’s shown above with a flower-draped memorial to her son.(SWNS)
He did two tours of dutyin Afghanistan, she said, and returned to civilian life in 2016 before suffering several worsening health conditions.
Turner, who is also the CEO of aveterans charitycalled 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 toldhe 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.“
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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.”
“I had never really understood that a person could become so overwhelmed by stress and grief that it physically affects the heart,” said the grieving mom.“Broken heart syndrome can look and feel like a heart attack.”(iStock)
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 someserious 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.”
“Maybe the extra [heart]beat is for Rob.You are carrying on living for him,” her partner told her.
Turner was told she needed to rest, seek counseling and makelifestyle changesto 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.'”
In an article published in theEuropean Heart Journal in March 2019, Swiss researchers said they found that the syndrome is linked to the way the brain communicates with the heart.
Broken heart syndrome, which causes the heart to temporarily weaken, has been linked to the brain’s reaction to stress, studies have found.(iStock)
Caused by intense emotional events, TTS is a rare, temporary condition thatweakens the left ventricleand 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 andblood-thinning medicineto reduce risks of clots and other flareups.
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