A man was found dead by his devastated parents the day after doctors put his heart palpitations down to anxiety.
Keen Manchester City fan Ben Peters was a healthy 25-year-old who had his whole life ahead of him. He had just taken his final exams to become a qualified solicitor, was running a local football team, and was getting ready to buy his first home.
On Friday, November 11 2022, Ben suffered chest pains and was seriously short of breath. After spending the early hours in A&E, he left after being told his symptoms could be anxiety or gastroenteritis as all of his tests came back clear.
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Ben was discharged with an anxiety disorder from Manchester Royal Infirmary, according to his family. The next morning, November 12, Ben was discovered dead by his heartbroken father, having had a catastrophic haemorrhage within his heart.
Now, the family is on a mission to raise awareness of the condition and raise money for a charity supporting families which lose young loved ones to heart problems.
“It was a big shock, it just came out of nowhere,” Ben’s brother, Michael, told the Manchester Evening News. “It was a Friday night, around midnight, Ben started having a lot of chest pain and was breathing in and out quickly, having serious shortness of breath.
“I rang my mum and dad and Ben went to A&E at the Manchester Royal Infirmary. He had quite a few tests and none of them showed anything was wrong.
“Doctors just put his symptoms down to anxiety disorder or gastroenteritis because he was incredibly tense and having heart palpitations.”
The 25-year-old, who was raised in Cheadle but was living in Manchester at the time, returned to his mum and dad’s home for the rest of the day after his early hours A&E visit. That evening, all seemed well as the family watched TV together.
The family went to bed, with Ben falling asleep on the sofa. It was only the next morning that dad Stephen was met with a waking nightmare.
“After he’d been in A&E all night, he came back to my mum and dad’s house,” explained 25-year-old Michael. “We were watching telly in the evening and then everyone went to bed.
“My dad was the first to wake up and noticed the light was still on and went to check on Ben who had been sleeping on the sofa. He found Ben, he was dead.”
An MRI scan might have uncovered the deadly aortic tear which killed him, says the family, but Ben’s brother adds that doctors had done multiple scans that all came back clear. The symptoms of such a tear are severe pains in the chest, and can result in sudden death.
“The inquest found that there was nothing out of the ordinary," said Michael. "Ben’s electrocardiogram (ECG) was normal, his X-ray came out fine.
“The medics are looking for the most likely cause and there was just nothing they thought was an issue, they can’t look into every single possible detail. Really, it was just a very unlucky set of circumstances and timings. It was no one’s fault.
“He lived in a flat away from our family, it was good that at least he wasn’t on his own when it happened.”
The shock death required an inquest, which this month found Ben had died from a lethal aortic dissection – something Ben was unknowingly predisposed to, according to his family.
“The inquest revealed that Ben had a catastrophic haemorrhage of his aorta. There was a tear on his heart and it expanded, and ended up completely severing, which killed him,” said Michael.
“My mum and dad have really struggled since, but our friends and family have been hugely supportive. In a strange way, this has brought our family together.”
One of the ways the family has bonded in the wake of Ben’s death has been to get their own hearts checked. After getting advice from the charity C.R.Y. (Cardiac Risk in the Young), Ben's immediate family, including his two brothers Harry and Michael, mum Anna and dad Stephen, underwent MRI scans, ECGs and echocardiograms.
The tests have found that Stephen has the same vulnerability, so he will be undergoing open-heart surgery in June.
“Since then, our whole family has been checked out as Ben’s death came after. There had never been any concern of any underlying causes found,” said Michael. “It was discovered that my dad’s aorta was double the width it should be - he had also had no symptoms.
“He is going for an aorta operation in June, so through Ben’s death and these tests we’ve managed to save my dad’s life.”
On July 8, Ben's family and friends are hosting a charity football match at Cheadle’s football ground. The team Ben ran, Cheadle Atlas, will play Davenport AFC in a match called ‘Kick for C.R.Y.’.
The family says that they want ‘fewer families to suffer like ours has and to hopefully improve the testing hospitals can do for young people coming to them with chest pains’.
“We’re trying to raise money for C.R.Y. which has been a real, massive help", Michael said.
“Ben was incredibly enthusiastic, he was a really great brother to me, he was only a year above me. He taught me a lot about life.
“Ben was a keen footballer and golfer, he was very into music. We’d had plans to go to so many gigs, it’s so sad not to be able to go with him.
“He was just such an important part of our family. Going to Man City matches, playing football and golf, and enjoying family parties without him has been hard for so many of us.
“We all miss Ben every day, and he was my best friend. It's very hard coming to terms with a life without him.”
For more information on the charity football match on the event page here.
A spokesperson for Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Manchester Royal Infirmary, said: “We wish to offer our sincere condolences to the family of Ben for their loss.
"Sadly, routine tests do not always pick up on this tragic condition and Ben’s circumstances were truly unfortunate. We wholeheartedly support Ben’s family and friends in raising awareness for cardiac risk in the young."
C.R.Y. offers subsidised ECG and echocardiogram screening to all young people between the ages of 14 and 35. An ECG is a simple way to diagnose most cardiac abnormalities. Results should be read by a cardiologist. For extra clarity, an echocardiogram (ultrasound scan) can also be done.
If there has been a young (under 35) sudden death in the family, the family is entitled to be screened on the NHS. All of C.R.Y.’s public events are free to attend.
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