Miracle Marvins: New hearts give brothers second chance

The Palm Coast Observer  | Andrew O'Brien
Connor and Brock at the 2013 World Transplant Games in Durban, South Africa. Connor Marvin won the gross division in golf for 18- to 29-year-olds. Brock Marvin plays soccer at Oglethorpe University, in Atlanta. COURTESY PHOTO

It was a Friday night in June 2011, in New York, and 15-year-old Connor Marvin needed a sub in his soccer game. Brock, his older brother, came on the field to give him a breather.

“He subbed me off, and my heart started racing after I sat down on the bench,” Connor said.

A racing heart is not a problem for teenage soccer players â€" it’s a normal occurrence. But not for Connor. When his heart acted up, so did his defibrillator â€" alerting him nine times that his heart was in arrhythmia and needed to be shocked to restart it.

“I thought I was going to die,” he recalled.

Connor, now a 17-year-old senior at Matanzas High School, was unusual on that soccer field because he had a defibrillator in the first place, but he wasn’t unique. His brother had one, too, just six months earlier. And that likely saved his life.
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