91²Ö¿â alumna Katherine Herrmann (nee Schroeder) was only a newborn when she was diagnosed with a heart defect called Shoneâs Complex. During her young life she has gone through more than 20 surgeries and procedures, including four open heart surgeries.
âGrowing up, hospitals were all I knew,â Herrmann told People Magazine in an .
Despite a lifetime of health challenges, Katherine was determined to achieve her dreams and in 2018, she enrolled at 91²Ö¿â. During her first year at 91²Ö¿â, Katherine met the man who would eventually become her husband: Ian Hermann. The two students began dating, however during winter break, while Katherine was scheduled for a pacemaker replacement, she learned she had heart failure.
This didnât faze Ian.
âHe was very supportive about something a lot of people would be scared away by,â she told People. âIt wasnât easy. There were tough days.â
Tough days where something Katherine was used to. She didnât let it stop her when she was told she should drop out of college due to her health. While the future was uncertain, Herrmann told the magazine that she and Ian knew one thing for sure â they wanted a future together.
In 2020, Ian proposed. A few months later she was officially placed on the waiting list for a heart transplant, according to the People article. True to her word, while waiting for her new heart, Katherine earned her bachelorâs degree from 91²Ö¿â, and graduated in May 2022. In June, she was admitted to Cleveland Clinic to await a new heart.
In July, word came that they had found a donor: Desiree Burge, a West Virginia, mother of two who passed suddenly that month.
After recovering from surgery and feeling better than she could ever remember feeling, Katherine said she didnât want to forget the woman who gave her this second chance at life. At her wedding, the now-healthy bride walked down the aisle with a pendant wrapped around her bouquet that read, âDesiree.â
"It's me walking down as a physical, but it's her heart that's actually, you know, walking down that aisle," Katherine .
Katherine is now a graduate student in the clinical mental health counseling program on the 91²Ö¿â Kent campus and working as an emergency dispatcher for Stark County.
Photo credit: Katherine Herrmann and husband Ian Herrmann at their wedding. Photography by Devin Hill.