A pregnant teenager collapsed and died Saturday morning after shoveling snow from winter storm Jonas outside her home in Pottstown, Pennsylvania.
Briahna Gerloff, 18, was eight months pregnant and suffered from several heart defects, including Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome (WPW),
reported NBC Philadelphia.
"I told her it probably wasn’t a good idea for her to be outside shoveling," a family member said. "She wanted to do it anyway."
The family member said that they were both outside when Gerloff decided to go back inside for a break.
When the family member returned to the house a little later, he discovered the front door was locked, forcing him to go in the basement door.
"I went upstairs, yelling her name, looking for her. I went to the bottom of the steps and yelled her name," he said. After discovering her collapsed on the floor and unresponsive, he said, "I started doing CPR. That’s when my neighbor came over and helped with CPR and tried to revive her and then the ambulance came."
When medics arrived they discovered that Briahna and her baby, Kayliana, were both dead.
"She was a very good person, a caring and loving person and she could not wait to be a mother," said the family member.
It's not yet clear whether the shoveling or her pre-existing health issues or both contributed to her death.