Neighbor News
Life Saving Actions Help Local Student
The Harcum College commencement ceremony will be extra special for one graduate.
Commencement will be especially meaningful to one Animal Center Management major. Barbara “Annie” FitzPatrick will walk across the stage in deep purple regalia on Saturday, May 13. But unlike most other
Harcum students, she is lucky to be alive.
Annie collapsed in February 2016 in a Main Line Wawa parking lot at age 19 and had to cease her studies until she recovered from the incident that nearly claimed her life. She is now is finishing at Harcum at the
top of her class with a 4.0, an amazing outcome.
Find out what's happening in Bryn Mawr-Gladwynefor free with the latest updates from Patch.
In an episode called “Miracle at the Wawa,” two Lower Merion Township officers resuscitated her on February 12, after her heart stopped.
FitzPatrick suffered from an an undiagnosed cardiac condition called Long QT Syndrome, which had been misdiagnosed for years as a form of epilepsy because of the seizures it induced. Usually the first symptom,
according to Heather Cronan, the young woman’s mother, is sudden death—the same condition that causes student athletes to suddenly collapse and die.
Find out what's happening in Bryn Mawr-Gladwynefor free with the latest updates from Patch.
In what is a most unusual coincidence, the police officers, who had just finished AED or defibrillator training that morning, pulled into the lot where FitzPatrick lay unconscious because the other Wawa parking lot
where they stopped earlier was too full.
After the incident, FitzPatrick took the rest of Spring semester off to recover and regain her strength and stamina, but was back to her studies on the Bryn Mawr campus by Fall of 2016, in pursuit of an associate’s
degree, the only degree Harcum confers. FitzPatrick now has a 4.0 G.P.A., the highest in her field of study, and she is a member of the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society for two-year institutions.
FitzPatrick and her mother are quick to credit the Program Director for Animal Center Management Linward Robinson for his support, the Financial Aid Office, and Harcum College for their assistance and flexibility in helping her adjust after the collapse and then finish her education.
In addition to her volunteer work at animal shelters, FitzPatrick now advocates for organizations to install AEDs, since she wouldn’t be alive without them.
After commencement, she will attend Drexel to complete a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science.
