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Is it possible to die from a broken heart?

Well, apparently it is.

When a relationship breaks down, especially a long term relationship, the resulting pain and anguish experienced by the rejected person is often described as ‘a broken heart’. More often than not, this is accompanied by a period of misery and depression, that may last for many years, or until a new relationship is found to replace the feelings of loss and grief that frequently follow the breakup.

But what if the relationship is terminated suddenly and unexpectedly by the death of one of the partners?

Research conducted by the University of Glasgow has shown that losing a partner may significantly increase your risk of dying yourself, and this may be due literally to a broken heart – where the surviving spouse is unable to live without the person to whom they have been married to for many years.

There are some high profile examples of this phenomenon as well as potentially countless unrecorded instances :-

• The ex British Labour Prime Minister James Callaghan died in 1995 aged 92, just over a week after his wife died. They had been married for nearly 70 years.

• The parents of the Kemp brothers from the famous 80′s pop group Spandau Ballet, died within a short time at the same hospital after the husband – Frank Kemp – suffered a heart attack and died. When his wife learned of his death, she herself passed away within a short time.

But the most amazing story of all must surely be of the couple from the UK – Stewart and Olga Whitfield, aged 56 and 61 respectively, who both died from heart attacks literally within minutes of each other – whilst the paramedics were on their way.

Mr. Whitfield had called for emergency help after his wife had suffered from a cardiac arrest. When the paramedics arrived they were unable to gain access to the house, so they were forced to break a window to enter the property. What they found inside must surely have amazed them, as they discovered that both Mr and Mrs Whitfield were dead, and both had died from a heart attack within a few minutes of each other.

According to their neighbours the couple were completely dedicated to one another, and this may be the clue to the unusual circumstances of their deaths, although backed up by the Glasgow University study conclusions.