I’m Aware That I’m Rare: Erica Hutchison (377)

The phaware® interview

Pulmonary hypertension patient, Erica Hutchison, discusses her long road to diagnosis which included multiple doctors and cardiologists telling her that her PH symptoms and panic attacks my just be “all in her head.” Now, 10+ years post-diagnosis, Erica has a passion for art and music and is working on her Doctorate of Music in composition and theory.

My name is Erica Hutchison. I am 42 years old and I have idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension. I was born with a congenital heart defect. About a quarter of the population has it. It’s called atrial septal defect. It’s a small hole in the heart. My pediatric cardiologist told my parents she’ll grow out of it. The hole will grow closed. It didn’t happen. It didn’t grow closed.

I had no problems that I was actually aware of until I was 31 years old and I became very sick one day. We thought I was just having panic attacks. I just couldn’t breathe, in the form of panic, it was just like I couldn’t do anything. I was just so scared. My boyfriend took me to urgent care. When we got…