Erin Hunter-McPhan is serving in the same hospital where she survived as a child. The 36-year-old has Tetralogy of Fallot, a congenital heart condition that almost took her life.
"I feel very blessed to be able to be here today and to live what normal life I can," Hunter-McPhan said.
In 1990, Gregory and Denise Hunter were overjoyed to have a new daughter. Denise Hunter said they were oblivious to the fact that their only child had to put in extra effort to finish her bottle. It was a regular 4-ounce bottle that children exert energy to drink, yet can complete.
Her mother said Hunter-McPhan's nail beds were blue. She said her lips were blue and burgundy. The Hunters brought their daughter to Children's Health.
"And we learned that the confirmation was that she had been diagnosed with Tetralogy of Fallot," her mother said.
Tetralogy of Fallot defects a baby's heart at birth in at least four ways. Four defects mean the child has to fight multiple heart problems, one of which is a hole in the heart. The opening can separate the heart's chambers. Doctors told the new parents it was time for open-heart surgery or Hunter-McPhan would not survive another year.
Two weeks later, their baby girl was in the operating room. Denise Hunter recalled Hunter-McPhan going in at noon. Then, at 2 a.m., she said a surgeon and chaplain came to prepare the parents for the worst.
"To say our last goodbyes. That she only had a few minutes," Denise Hunter said. "There were so many thoughts that went through my mind. How am I going to get through this? How am I going to bury my daughter? And, you know, how can I even go into her nursery?"
As she recalled, tearfully thinking about saying goodbye to the jewel she and her husband had known for nine months, the baby went into cardiac arrest. Hunter-McPhan survived the medical episode and then went into intensive care at Children's for three months.
"There was a time where I was confined to a bed in the ICU," Hunter-McPhan said. "And I also had suffered a stroke."
She would lead a normal life with her doctor's guidance: cheerleading, sports, and dance.
Her mother remembers a track meet where Erin was the runner on the last leg, and her team was behind. Denise Hunter said she was supposed to record the results, which were a comeback victory. Somehow, amid the joy and thrill, the camera caught more of the bleachers when she dropped it, along with rousing cheers for the accomplishment.
Erin would have a total of seven open-heart surgeries. Nothing surgical could prepare her family for what happened to her father on June 18, 2004. Sgt. Gregory Hunter was shot and killed on duty for the Grand Prairie Police Department. He went to investigate a suspicious van parked in the Walmart parking lot.
Investigators said the suspect pulled a gun, started shooting, killing Gregory Hunter, and wounding the second officer. But the wounded officer somehow managed to shoot back, killing the suspect.
Four days earlier, Hunter-McPhan said her father was overjoyed she got into Fort Worth Country Day. He was going to take her to Camp Moss, a Children's camp for kids with cardiac disease, that weekend. Her mother had to start planning an end-of-watch.
"There's definitely more than a few challenging times," Hunter-McPhan said. "There's some things that surgery can't fix or prevent."
She and her mother forged a special bond. Hunter-McPhan went on to nursing school and graduated with a picture of her father on her cap.
Her team at Children's became attached to her journey. She remembers what her cardiologist sacrificed when her grandmother died. Hunter-McPhan's lineage makes her Black and Japanese.
"She was a native of Japan and came to the US. My cardiothoracic surgeon is Japanese as well," she said. "And so at that time, he made phone calls to her family in Japan since we couldn't speak Japanese. He attended her funeral and eulogized her in her native language of Japanese."
When she was pinned as a nurse, members of her heart team from Children's were there to help her realize her childhood dream. They also came to her father's funeral.
The team would also have the privilege to call her coworker. She worked as a bedside nurse partly because it fueled her dreams and partly because it connected her to the first-responder side of her dad.
She's married and, yes, her heart team attended. Now, the pay-it-forward part. Hunter-McPhan works in the heart center at Children's Health as a program manager in quality outcomes and the data department.
"Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God's promised to those who love him," she said. "And I think it just has really shown how God's been there for me."
The book of James, chapter one, verse two has been a scripture she said that's guided her through a challenging journey.
In the meantime, she and her mother honor the man taken from their lives through the Sergeant Gregory L. Hunter Memorial Foundation.