peripartum myopathy

      I'm looking for information on miscarriage and cardiomyopathy.
     My daughter in law lost her baby at approx. 7wks gestation. She was told when the tissue passed to bring it in which she did but she was never
  examined .
  Following this she went in for weekly blood tests for which my son thought was to see when she could get pregnant again. I'm assuming these were to check hormone levels . Her calendar said she continued to bleed for 6 wks. We talked on the phone and she was told she could have a D and C or could "finish on her own". My advice was to get it done but she opted to wait  it out for fear of not being able to get pregnant after such a procedure.
    She awoke one morning with a headache and layed down. She spoke with my son and then 2 minutes later he was doing CPR. I do know that she was in PEA when the paramedics arrived and epi was given. She then went into V fib on was shocked approx 10 minutes later. She was on a vent for 7 days and died.  Up til now she had been healthy. ( was a Marine)
      I'm sorry for making this so long but now with the autopsy they are calling it cardio myopathy. We waited 3 months for this report and now are more confused than before.
     I'm looking for other people who have went through such a thing but I'd like to hear from a Doctor. I just finished paramedic school and feel the need to give my son a more complete picture.    Thanks
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Dear Susan:
I am sorry to hear about your daughter-in-law.  From the autopsy, it sounds like she had some sort of cardiomyopathy, or structural disease of the heart.  The term cardiomyopathy covers lots of different types of specific heart diseases, including those present since birth.  Perhaps, the physical stress of pregnancy caused her already diseased heart to go into cardiac arrest.  Many women with serious heart disease who become pregnant have complications (even if they felt healthy before, the physical stress of pregnancy is different from exercise).
I do not think the pregnancy caused the cardiomyopathy.  Pregnancy can cause a cardiomyopathy, but it occurs much later in the pregnancy.
It does not sound like anyone could have done anything different to prevent this tragedy.
I hope this is useful.  Feel free to write back with further questions.
Information provided here is for general purposes only.  Only your doctor can provide specific diagnoses and treatments.  If you would like to be seen at the Cleveland Clinic, please call 1-800-CCF-CARE for an appointment at Desk F15 with a cardiologist.