Barbara Bush’s death raises pertinent question: How much can a ‘broken heart’ hurt survivors?

The Associated Press

It’s a question asked whenever someone gets sick or dies soon after losing a spouse: Was it because of a broken heart? Stress might not be to blame for former President George H.W. Bush’s hospitalization a day after his wife’s funeral, but it does the body no favors, and one partner’s health clearly affects the other’s.

A sudden shock can trigger a heart attack or something like it called broken heart syndrome. Some studies also have found that people are more likely to die soon after losing a longtime spouse.

But often the timing is mere coincidence, and “broken heart” speculation just fuels a neat narrative when the problem is unsurprising in an older person with underlying health issues.

In any case, the death of a loved one is a dangerous time for the surviving spouse, said Nieca Goldberg, a cardiologist at NYU Langone Medical Center and an American Heart Association spokeswoman.

“It’s really important to have a lot of other support around you,” she said. “When people are depressed after something like this happens, they may not be eating, they may ignore symptoms and want to be stoic. They’re certainly stressing and may not be getting enough rest. All of these things can set the stage for life-threatening conditions.”

Mr. Bush, who will turn 94 in June, has been hospitalized since April 22 with an infection that’s spread to his blood.

Stress weakens the immune system and can make infections harder to fend off, said several doctors not involved in his care. But Mr. Bush needs a wheelchair because of a form of Parkinson’s disease and has been hospitalized before for pneumonia and other infections.

“Broken heart” was widely speculated when Debbie Reynolds died a day after her actress-daughter, Carrie Fisher, did in 2016. An autopsy later showed that Ms. Reynolds, 84, died of a blood vessel that ruptured and caused bleeding in her brain — a kind of stroke.