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A Santa Clara County woman who is now believed to be the first person in the US USA Killed by the new coronavirus, she died of a broken heart caused by her body’s fight to beat the virus, her autopsy shows.
Patricia Dowd, 57, of San Jose, died at her home on February 6 of what looked like a heart attack while suffering from what appeared to be the flu. But this news organization reported Thursday that authorities now say it had the coronavirus, which they did not know at the time.
A report on his autopsy, published Saturday night by the San Francisco Chronicle, shows that his body fought so hard against the virus that a valve in his heart was broken, said a pathologist who reviewed the document to this news organization. . .
Dr. Judy Melinek, a Bay Area forensic pathologist who reviewed the autopsy report, said it showed that the muscle “was infected, that’s what caused the rupture of his heart.”
Dowd’s heart was a normal size and weight, Melinek said. Heart breaks like the one Dowd suffered usually occur in people who have bad cholesterol levels.
“There is an indication that the heart weakened,” said Melinek. “The immune system was attacking the virus and by attacking the virus it damaged the heart and then the heart basically exploded.”
Dowd’s husband, citing his wife’s strong exercise habits and general good health before getting sick, had requested an autopsy.
The results showed the role that the virus played, which was unknown at the time of death, and is now considered a crucial missed opportunity in the battle against the virus and COVID-19, the disease it causes. Dowd’s death, as well as two others, on February 17 and March 6, show that the virus was spreading on the west coast long before the first known American case in Solano County was reported in March.
Bay Area counties did not issue the country’s first residency application until nearly six weeks after Dowd’s death.
“If we had understood that people were already dying … we probably would have acted sooner than we did,” Dr. Sara Cody, Santa Clara County Health Officer, said at a press conference on Wednesday.
What was thought to be the first coronavirus death in Santa Clara County was publicly reported on March 9. As of Saturday, the county health department had reported 99 deaths attributed to the virus.
