Thinking the worst, please help

Hello, my boyfriend drinks a lot of alcohol on a daily basis to a point where he does not live a healthy lifestyle at all. He drinks, despite his organs "shaking", does not eat regular meals but throws up on a regular basis. Recently, he had an "episode" where his heart felt like it stopped beating and he had severe pain in his chest. This happened once on Saturday, and by the time Sunday night rolled around, he had 3 or 4 episodes in the period of 30 minutes. What could be wrong with him? THANK YOU!

[Julia M Aharonov, DO]

Alcohol is on of the worst kind of addictions there is.  It causes slow, often irreversible damage to the human organs, especially the  liver and  the heart.
Since you mentioned the heart, that is what I will concentrate on.
Even though small amount of alcohol (1 drink/day) is considered beneficial for the overall cardiovascular health, excessive drinking has been shown to cause what in medical terms is called alcoholic cardiomyopathy. It means that alcohol destroys the muscle tissue of the heart to such degree that it becomes flaccid and unable to pump blood efficiently though the human body. It is a relatively slow process, but is irreversible, leading to episodes of arrhythmia, ischemia, inability of heart to deliver oxygen to itself  and the rest of the viral organ such as brain, kidneys, intestines, etc...
The death can come suddenly though arrhythmia or through slow dying of vital organs. Your friend needs to understand that he is killing himself. Just as surely as pitting a bullet to his brain.
I am just sorry that you have to suffer and watch your loved on go through this.
He must see a doctor to determine how bad his heart is, some damage may still be reversible if he stops drinking. Sometime it is not too late.
Good like to both of you, I will keep you in my prayers.