I am so very sorry for the loss of your daughter. I have not heard specifically about kidney infection and cardiomyopathy but I know that viral infections anywhere in the body can affect the heart. I have had symptoms of heart failure on and off since I had a flu-like illness in 2006. Shortness of breath, and unable to build any kind of exercise tolerance. Fluid retention and chest pains as well. I have not been able to fly in an airplane without terrible shortness of breath and chest pressure. Consumption of any type or amount of alcohol will bring on the same symptoms. I have had numerous tests, all of which I am told are normal. Unfortunately, as advanced as the cardiac tests and imaging are, they do not show everything. I think I have a chronic virus in the heart that is responsible for the symptoms. The doctors will not do the more invasive tests like a cardiac catheterization because they don't feel the non-invasive tests warrant it. I am at a loss. I think your daughter may have had a strong virus or bacteria that attacked the heart. I feel that females with chest pains are not taken seriously enough and the tests, even though very sophisticated do not show many things. I hope we see changes soon. It seems incomprehensible in this day and age that we do not know more about cardiomyopathy.