From heart failure to a near full recovery: Robin Sharps’ Story

Despite everything, her care has led to a remarkable recovery.

Even after turning 50 this past year, Robin Sharps says she never felt healthier as an adult. And that’s after playing volleyball for four years at Kent State, coaching several sports, and years of yoga, lagree, and hiking. Despite feeling the best she’s ever felt, Robin suffered from a pulmonary embolism this past year, which the American Heart Association describes as a blood clot that travels to the lungs and is the third-leading cause of cardiovascular death in the United States.

Contrary to strokes and heart attacks, where blood clots originate in the arteries and carry blood from the heart, pulmonary embolisms are caused by blood clots in the veins called Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT), which usually form in the leg and travel the lungs.

Before her pulmonary embolism, Robin had suffered a fluke accident where two dogs ran into the back of her leg, fracturing her tibia and tearing her ACL, leaving her needing surgery. During the five weeks following the surgery, clots started forming. However, it wasn’t until she left her first PT session that she started feeling sick and seizing. Luckily, her husband, Jeff, Truro Township Fire Chief, arrived on the scene in time to call 911. Robin was administered CPR on her way to the hospital.

Little did Robin know that getting to the Emergency Department at Mount Carmel East was just the start of her journey. Upon arrival and due to her symptoms, she needed an immediate MRI. However, on her way to the MRI, her heart stopped, and she had to receive CPR three separate times, which eventually helped the ED physicians and nurses to determine she was suffering from a saddle embolism, where a clot was blocking the main pulmonary artery.

Once the cause was determined, Mount Carmel East’s ED team got to quick work to treat the problem and restore blood flow the clot had caused. Robin was eventually put on an ECMO, a life-support machine that keeps oxygenated blood moving through the body and regulates carbon dioxide and oxygen levels. 

Despite getting Robin’s pulmonary embolism under control, the situation put her liver under so much stress it caused the lining to come off. Due to the nature of the case, over 25 people were attending to Robin during her time in the ED. In total, Robin spent 21 days in the Mount Carmel East Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and received 114 units of blood. 

Despite everything, her care has led to a remarkable recovery. Dr. Noah Jones says, “she now has the heart of a 30-year-old, and her lungs have returned to 98% working capacity.

Following her recovery and rehabilitation, which included eight days of physical and occupational therapy, Robin is excited to be back to teaching special education in eighth grade and walking her dogs for two to three miles per day. She credits her nurses at Mount Carmel for their “tireless work ethic and endless energy, all while ensuring they met her and her family’s needs.” Along with her nurses, she’s thankful for her doctors for “meeting every day to use their collective intelligence on her behalf.”

After going through this experience, she urges anyone who’s recently had surgery to “monitor your bodies, be cognizant of new, odd, or different feelings, and share your family health history.”

Learn more about Mount Carmel’s Cardiac Rehabilitation and other recovery programs.