Experts are questioning the medical examiner’s ruling in the death of US Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick during the January Capitol riot. Although medical examiners did not found any signs of blunt force trauma, a stroke can follow a traumatic situation.
“Stress is the body’s natural response to a real or perceived threat,” said Lindsey Rosman, MD, an assistant professor of medicine in the division of cardiology, in a CNN news story. “A riot is an example of an acute stressor, and this type of event could trigger the heart to work harder, by increasing heart rate and blood pressure, which could conceivably trigger the formation of a clot that travels to the brain and causes a stroke.”