Marilyn Wroblewski

A Heart-Pumping Profession

Working in an Emergency Room and Intensive Care Unit provided Marilyn Wroblewski with valuable nursing experience that she wouldn’t trade in for the world. However, working in an ER is not a TV show – it’s real life.

Throughout my nursing career, I’ve had some heart-pounding experiences. When I was younger, I worked as a nurse in the intensive care unit at Children’s Memorial Hospital. My adrenaline was always pumping on the job. Children’s Memorial is one of the best hospitals for heart surgery and kids were always being flown in from all over the country. I always wondered what was coming next. I also had the opportunity to work as a nursing supervisor at the University of Iowa Hospital. That was the hospital in the state for car accident victims. In their neurology department, I took care of people with brain injuries — a big responsibility.

When you’re young, working in the ER is exciting. However, as I got older, that life became less glamorous. There’s so much sadness involved, and then when you have kids, you start thinking, ‘that could be one of my children.’

In fact, my two children Anna and Emily are my greatest joys in life. They are both now in their 20s, but when I adopted them, Anna was 9 and Emily was 7. Divine intervention brought the girls to me from Vietnam. I was living in Indiana at the time and a woman who ran a local orphanage showed me a picture of the sisters. I was immediately in love and I knew I could give them a wonderful home.

Marilyn Wroblewski
Manager of Health Services