Erin's Story

While teaching her phys-ed class, Erin Duroborow suffered a sudden cardiac arrest. She was taken to her local hospital. At her first opportunity, she asked to be transferred to Penn Medicine.

It was supposed to be an exciting day. A middle-school gym teacher in New Jersey, Erin was looking forward to telling her principle and colleagues that she was expecting her first child. But during fourth period gym class, she collapsed. When her colleague heard a thud, he turned around to see Erin lying on the gym floor. She had gone into sudden cardiac arrest.

Fortunately, her colleagues acted quickly. They immediately called 9-1-1 and found the school nurse who retrieved the nearest AED (automatic defibrillator). Erin was shocked three times before her heart regained its normal rhythm.

When Erin woke up in her local hospital's emergency room, her husband, mother, principle and close colleagues were by her side. The first thing she said to her doctors was, “please check on the baby.” Doctors assured her that the baby was doing well and that they were trying to determine what caused the cardiac arrest. However, Erin was an enigma. Doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong, and they weren't comfortable operating on her since she was 13 weeks pregnant.

That's when Erin needed better answers and requested to be transferred to Penn Medicine. Her mother was a longtime patient of Penn Heart and Vascular Center at Pennsylvania Hospital and called her cardiologist, Dr. Robert Norris, who helped setup the transfer. At Pennsylvania Hospital, Erin was greeted by a team of physicians who had an immediate and long-term care plan for her and her unborn baby.

It was decided that Erin would have surgery to implant a pacemaker. A few days before the surgery, electrophysiologist Dr. Jeffery Luebbert discussed a few options for pacemakers. That’s when Erin said, “You’re the expert. You're the doctor. I trust you completely.”

After Erin was discharged, she was fitted with an external monitor and received check-ups every six weeks during her pregnancy. Another episode of abnormal heart rhythms put Erin back in the hospital over Christmas, but it only reaffirmed her choice to choose Penn.

When it was time for Erin to give birth, everything was already planned and in control. In addition to her Labor and Delivery team, Dr. Norris was there with other members of the cardiology team in case any issues arose related to Erin’s heart. But, the birth went smoothly, and Erin and her husband welcomed a healthy baby boy, Sean, into the world.

Today, Erin is back in the classroom doing what she loves. She and her husband are also now busy parents of two boys: 3-year-old Sean and new, younger brother Declan. A few months after Declan’s birth, Erin had a cardiac ablation procedure at Penn which has left her feeling much better. She credits her whole team of doctors and nurses for watching out her for her, attending to her specific needs and making sure her and her children were safe.