Miles trial: what is the “broken heart syndrome”, of which the bus driver was allegedly a victim?

Unlikely reverse gear in Miles’s car accident trial. This Monday began his second week of absence of the driver, Nadine Oliveira, 53, prosecuted for homicide and involuntary injuries and victim of a heart attack last Thursday during an interrogation in which he had once again tried to explain what he had seen. or not seen before the collision that claimed the lives of six schoolchildren and injured 17 others, some of them very seriously.

Women older than 50 years affected

Transferred to intensive care, she would have been a victim of the so-called “broken heart” syndrome, which occurs after an intense psychological shock. Also called “Tako-tsubo” syndrome, it is most often identified, according to the Vidal Dictionary definition, “in a woman over 50 years of age”, after menopause.

“This stress cardiomyopathy can appear after intense physical or psychological stress. […] Produces signs suggestive of acute myocardial infarction. It is transitory, but it is exposed to a significant risk of complications and recurrence”, we learn again. In fact, it is a significant contraction of the heart muscle after a traumatic shock.

The term “Tako-tsubo” means “octopus trap”, in reference to the amphora shape that the organ takes when subjected to this syndrome, indicating the midi-free.

Physical or psychological stress

Still according to the Vidal Dictionary, the prevalence of the syndrome is estimated at 1 case per 36,000 adults. “It would represent 1 to 3% of patients suspected of having an acute myocardial infarction” and 80% of them are indeed women in their fifties.

The syndrome can be triggered by physical stressors, but also by negative psychological stress, including divorce or bereavement. On the contrary, it can also be caused by shock at the announcement of good news.

If the trial resumes this Monday at the beginning of the afternoon, the driver’s lawyer believes that a new scanner must still be passed to establish her ability to attend the hearings. For his part, Stéphane Mathieu, father of a teenager who disappeared in the accident, expressed “a feeling of disgust” after the filing of the recusal motion, intended according to him to “save time.”