Brienne Heroux, police officer and mother of newborn

Star Tribune

Brienne Heroux

A rare illness cut short the life of a Stillwater police officer who was a go-getter in all she did and had dreams of raising a family. She died two weeks after giving birth.

By TIM HARLOW, Star Tribune

Last update: September 16, 2009 - 11:06 PM

In the final weeks leading up to the birth of her first child, Stillwater police officer Brienne Heroux had trouble sleeping. She could not keep food down, frequently felt light-headed and had high blood pressure. Her skin changed color, and she experienced pain that felt like heartburn. She was told it was all part of being pregnant.

What she had was a condition called HELLP, a life-threatening complication that affects 2 to 12 percent of women who suffer pregnancy-induced hypertension. HELLP, which stands for Hemolysis, Elevated Liver, Low Platelet -- can have deadly consequences for mother and fetus. In the case of Heroux, it did.

Two weeks after becoming a mother, Heroux died Sunday at Rochester's Methodist Hospital when family members took her off a ventilator that had been used to keep her alive after she had undergone a liver transplant.

The news is better for her son, Leland, who was born with part of his bladder outside his body. He has recovered after surgery Sept. 1 at Children's Hospital of St. Paul, but he won't ever get to meet his mother, who was an exemplary police officer and a friend of everybody she met, said those who knew her.

"Bri was a buzzer," said her father, Jim Mueller, of Eagan. "Her symbol in life was a bumblebee. She buzzed around and got things done."

Heroux was born in Edina and grew up in Eagan. She was a goalie on the varsity hockey team at Eagan High School, from which she graduated in 1997. As a teen, she learned about public service and got her EMS training through the Eagan Fire Department Fire Explorers program. After high school, she worked for five years as an on-call member of the Eagan Fire Department and was a dispatcher for the Minnesota State Patrol. In that capacity she also helped out by playing the role of a victim when the agency held training and drill exercises at places such as Fort Ripley, her father said.

That whetted her appetite for police work, her father said. Heroux earned a degree in law enforcement from Century College in White Bear Lake and was hired by the Stillwater Police Department in 2006.

"When she was sworn in before the City Council, they said they were tickled pink to have her," Mueller recalled. "They liked her personality as a go-getter."

One of the first things she did in Stillwater was to update medical kits so first responders had proper equipment, her father said.

Heroux, an animal lover, liked horseback riding and owned three dogs. Because she enjoyed hockey, she provided emergency medical services for Eagan youth hockey programs. It was at a hockey game in Hastings that she met her husband, Andy, a St. Paul police officer whom she married in 2007.

Bri's father hopes his daughter's death will bring more attention to the illness that killed her and encourage women who experience similar symptoms to "speak up, get a second opinion" and get the treatment they need to prevent or reduce the severity of the disease.

In addition to her father and husband, Heroux is survived by her mother, Mary, of Eagan and a sister, Anya Mueller, of Eagan.

A procession of police cars will leave the Bradshaw Funeral Home in Stillwater at 11 a.m. Monday and pass the Stillwater Police Department on its way to St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church, 2035 W. 15th St., Hastings. Services will be held there at 2 p.m. Visitation will be held from 3 to 8 p.m. Sunday at Bradshaw Funeral Home, 2800 Curve Crest Blvd., Stillwater.

Donations to the Heroux Family Fund can be sent to the Stillwater Police Department at 216 N. 4th St., Stillwater, MN 55082.

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