Sixth Former Anna Liu’s cancer research at summer externship helps her see the big picture.
October 10, 2024
At 14, Brit Marien ‘12 had a medical scare that changed her life. Now she is sharing her heart with those who helped her regain her health.
BY JANA F. BROWN
With more than 50,000 runners commandeering the streets of New York City each fall, its namesake marathon is the largest 26.2-mile race in the world. Among the vast sea of entrants from around the globe who will gather at the starting line on Nov. 3, 2024, will be Washington, D.C., resident Brit Marien ’12.
The day will mark a significant achievement for the St. Paul’s School alumna, and one she never thought possible. First, while Marien is an accomplished athlete, she is not a distance runner. But, more significantly, the marathon will fall almost exactly 16 years to the day after Marien had surgery to repair a large hole in her heart. As a Third Former in the fall of 2008, Marien collapsed on a run to the boat docks with the girls JV soccer team. She opened her eyes to teammates standing over her, calling her name. One of them brought her immediately to Clark House, where Marien was examined by Dr. John Bassi, the School’s medical director.
“I was convinced I was just dehydrated, and it wasn’t a big deal,” Marien recalls. “But Dr. Bassi said, ‘Wait, I think I hear a heart murmur.’ He asked me if I’d ever had any cardiac issues. I told him this was the first time anyone had mentioned this. He said he’d feel a lot better if I went for a second opinion.”
Within a few days, Marien was sitting in a cardiologist’s office at the Dartmouth Hitchcock Clinic in Concord. After undergoing a series of tests, her doctor came in and asked Marien if she wanted to hear the good news or the bad. She chose the latter first. “He said, ‘The bad news is that you have a giant hole in your heart,’” Marien recalls, “‘and the good news is, I can get you in for open-heart surgery in the next month.’”
The surgery was a pretty severe wake-up call, especially hearing the doctor say I might not have lived past my 18th birthday if the condition had not been detected.”
— Brit Marien '12
Though the Lincoln, New Hampshire, native was a competitive athlete who came to St. Paul’s to play varsity ice hockey, she realized after her diagnosis with atrial septal defect (ASD) — a congenital cardiac condition that features an abnormal opening in the dividing wall between the upper chambers of the heart — that she had for years felt out of breath while exercising and had always had difficulty gaining weight. What she believed was her optimal performance as an athlete was actually being significantly impacted by a condition she never knew she had.
A 17-hour surgery followed at Boston Children’s Hospital (BCHP), and four months later, Marien was back on the ice, skating and stickhandling, and playing on the varsity softball team at SPS in the spring of her Third Form year. During her surgery and recovery, Marien gained strength from the encouragement of the St. Paul’s community, learning that she was included in morning prayers in chapel, receiving visits, cards and get-well gifts from her adviser and friends. Because the surgery involved breaking Marien’s sternum, she was unable to carry a backpack (“or sneeze or laugh without pain — you don’t realize how much pressure you put on your sternum on a day-to-day basis”), so her teachers allowed her to keep her books in their classrooms.
“I remember feeling really supported by the entire community,” Marien says, “and it was a very easy transition to come back. I was so eager to do so, which I think says everything about the School and the support system they had in place for me.”
Successful surgery not only increased Marien’s physical energy, but it also boosted her emotional health. Determined to expand her horizons, she signed up for a service trip to Ghana and, in her Fifth Form summer, joined the SPS Cyclists for a 3,438-mile journey from Seattle to Maine to raise money for Ride 2 Recovery, a nonprofit that helps military veterans in their rehabilitation through organized cycling events. The grueling cross-country trip was a literal and figurative test of Marien’s heart.
“The surgery was a pretty severe wake-up call, especially hearing the doctor say I might not have lived past my 18th birthday if the condition had not been detected,” says Marien, who also served as a prefect and a student admissions officer at SPS while captaining the hockey and softball teams. “That changed my perspective as in: You have this one very short life to live, so you have to live it to the fullest.”
After completing her B.A. in political science and international affairs at the University of New Hampshire (where she co-founded the women’s club hockey team), Marien earned a master’s in security studies from Georgetown University and got a job with the Department of Defense. She now serves as the head of operations in the Intelligence and Space Division at Anduril Industries, a defense-tech startup in Washington, D.C. As part of her job training, Marien flew for three and a half hours in an F-16 fighter jet, another testament to her physical strength. “Being able to get medically certified to do that proved just how healthy my heart is, and it all comes back to my time at St. Paul’s and Dr. Bassi,” Marien says.
I remember feeling really supported by the entire [SPS] community, and it was a very easy transition to come back. I was so eager to do so, which I think says everything about the School and the support system they had in place for me.”
— Brit Marien '12
While seeking her most recent physical challenge, Marien decided to train for the 2024 NYC Marathon. As serendipity would have it, when she logged on to the marathon site to see which charity partners she might be able to represent, Boston Children’s Hospital was at the top of the list. “It felt like it was meant to be,” she says. Marien applied for a fundraising bib and was accepted as a member of the BCHP “Miles for Miracles” team. She is now raising $4,500 for the facility that helped to change — and save — her life.
Until the age of 14, no doctor had ever detected the heart murmur that was a potential ticking time bomb in Marien’s chest, and she remains grateful for the care she received from Dr. Bassi all those years ago. Now well into his tenure as SPS medical director, Bassi says he remembers the day clearly when Marien came into Clark House, confused and scared by her collapse on an otherwise routine three-mile run.
“It reminds me that the care, consistency and dedication brought to small moments can yield important results,” Bassi says. “Like most physicians, I hope I can have some impact on various aspects of patient lives, and perhaps even alter one’s life for the better. The truth is, through it all, Brit is the one who did the hard work and persevered with resilience. I am so pleased to know that she is thriving and has dedicated part of her life to contributing to the betterment of others.”
Bassi further chalks up his role in the incident to “just doing what I was trained to do” but is humbled by Marien’s gratitude, and impressed by her continuing pursuit of demanding physical endeavors — this time 26.2 miles’ worth.
