An autopsy report of the first known COVID-19 death in the United States revealed that the patient died from a ruptured heart.

The 57-year-old Patricia Dowd of San Jose, California died at her home on February 6, 2020 after the patient suffered flu-like symptoms.

According to the report published by the Mercury News, the autopsy result found after an investigation of her death, Dowd was actually infected with the new novel coronavirus which finding of her death surprised authorities that COVID-19 in the US occurred weeks earlier than first believed.

During the initial investigation, Dowd’s death believed it was due to heart attack. But after the autopsy result was released it shows that the virus infection found on her heart’s muscle triggers the attack resulting her heart valve ruptured.

Experts believed that immune system was attacking the virus and while the immune system is attacking the virus it resulted to damage the heart and basically burst.

Dr. Judy Melinek, a forensic pathologist explained that this type of heart ruptured is commonly occurred to the people with high cholesterol levels or to the people with abnormalities in their heart muscle.

She added that there’s something wrong that the perfectly normal heart busts open because normal heart does not rupture, Melinek told The San Francisco Chronicle.

According to the health record of Dowd, she was in good health and did regular exercise before she feels sick.

Previous studies indicated the connection between COVID-19 and the heart based on the small findings in the study in China, saying more than 1 in 5 COVID-19 patients develop heart damages as a result of infection.