There are likely few moments more joyous in a parent’s life than seeing their children get married. Unfortunately, one 65-year-old mother’s sheer wedding happiness inadvertently led to heart problems that landed her in the emergency room. The woman’s doctors detailed the baffling situation earlier this month in a case report. In the days after her daughter’s wedding, she developed an incredibly rare condition known as “happy heart syndrome.” Thankfully, she made a full recovery. “Our case underscores this uncommon presentation and adds to the limited body of literature documenting patients who experienced profound joy followed by the unexpected onset of stress cardiomyopathy,” the doctors wrote in their paper, published in the Oxford Medical Case Reports.
Too much joy Happy heart syndrome, or HHS, is a rare subtype of an already rare heart problem called takotsubo cardiomyopathy. Takotsubo is characterized by the sudden weakening and ballooning of the heart’s left ventricle, the thickest chamber primarily responsible for pumping blood throughout the rest of the body (the ventricle can then resemble the shape of a Japanese octopus trap, which is called a takotsubo). This weakening is typically sparked by an intense burst of emotional or physical stress, though actual trauma (like a fall) can potentially cause it as well. It’s usually associated with the fallout of a deeply sad life event, such as a break-up or a close loved one’s death, which is why it’s garnered the nickname of “broken heart syndrome.” But even an especially cheerful situation can trigger the condition, as with this case.
