Reading Woman`s Shore Death Explained

CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE, N.J. August 1, 2001 — A 31-year-old woman who died suddenly during a visit to the Jersey shore may have been stricken with a rare heart condition, her family doctor told a newspaper.

Beth Ann Miller, of Reading, Pa., died May 28, 2001, after being rushed to the hospital from a Stone Harbor condominium where she was staying. Cape May County Medical Examiner Dr. Elliot Gross said she died of cardiac arrest brought on by mitral valve prolapse. Her parents, citing bruises found on her head, believe she was murdered.

Dr. Charles C. Nydegger, a Miller family cardiologist who worked at the same Reading, Pa., hospital that Miller did, says he believes she may have died from a rare condition called Long Q-T Syndrome.

"If she had it, and I think she did, then the odds are overwhelming that that was her cause of death," Nydegger told The Press of Atlantic City in a story published Wednesday.

Nydegger has treated other family members and reviewed a 1995 electrocardiogram that suggests Miller suffered from it.

But he acknowledged that the diagnosis, if correct, does not explain the bruises found on Miller`s right temple.

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(Copyright 2001 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Author: 6 ABC - Action News