This post was updated Aug. 31 at 10:05 p.m. Erin Morrow began experiencing shortness of breath and chest pain at 20 years old. Morrow, who is now a doctoral student in psychology at UCLA, said she consulted several doctors as an undergraduate student at Emory University before being diagnosed with a third-degree atrioventricular block – a heart rhythm disorder where the organ’s upper and lower chambers do not properly send signals to each other. Read more...

Photo: Erin Morrow, a doctoral student in psychology at UCLA, holds a newspaper. Morrow said federally funded research saved her life after she was diagnosed with a third-degree atrioventricular block. (Courtesy of Erin Morrow)