“I’m a Survivor” The Courage of Cariann Chamberlin

By Aurora Elisa Deiri

The angel wings on Cariann Chamberlin’s back are there for a good reason. She’s a living, breathing miracle. “I was born with an interrupted aortic arch, but I never, ever see myself as a victim,” says the tiny but mighty young lady before me. “I’m a survivor.” She laughs and I cannot help but wonder why, as I try to imagine what she’s about to say. Cariann’s joy comes from anticipating my reaction as she shares a memory that is sure to surprise me.

“When I had my heart attack at age 23,” she explains, “they couldn’t even find my heart! They were shocked because… it wasn’t in there, because they were all looking for it on the wrong side.” She smiled with a delightful, contagious grin that I would soon come to appreciate more and more. Cariann continued to explain that she was born with dextrocardia, a rare congenital condition affecting only 1% of the population. Her heart is on the right side of her chest (literally on the wrong side), so there’s a long surgical scar down her back, instead of in the middle of her chest.

As a child, she was able to walk and run, but she was so skinny that they called her “mosquito.” She didn’t have any pulses from the waist down until age 10, but she didn’t even know that until signing up for dance class as a child, when they required a physical examination for enrollment. She went on to become a dancer, in spite of her limitations. She’s extremely double jointed, however, so her knee cap and elbows would often pop out of place, and she would just fall to the floor.

Cariann always loved the Rainbow Care Bear, and that became another one of her nicknames. Little Carebear started first grade a year early, at age 5, but the same school later held her back a year, due to missing too many days, even though she was very smart. She was later able to get moved up again to be with her friends. Cariann did very well in school and by her senior year, she only had to attend one class, so she worked as a co-op student at an insurance company for Tesoro. “I was licensed as an agent at age 19,” she stated, “while I was still in school. I was actually working at that job when 9-11 happened.”

Her family was not from San Antonio. She grew up in Houston, but they moved to San Antonio after her parents divorced and later returned to Houston. She went to SAC for her basics and attended the University of Houston Downtown (UHD), where she studied marketing, later becoming President of the American Marketing Association (AMA) for 2 years.

“I had an advantage, although I was still very young, because I was well traveled and I had so many connections.” She was also married, with more life experiences than most of the other college students her age. When she was overseas, she learned that family is the most important thing.

“I value myself a lot, but I learned that even as you are building yourself up and getting stronger, you will always need others to help you along the way.

Now I want to pay it forward,” Chamberlin insists. “It took me a long time to deal with all of the physical pain, and now I want to mentor others going through similar situations. I want to let high school and college students know that they need to get life and work experience, even if it’s from unpaid internships, in order to be taken seriously in the workplace and get paid for the education you have earned.”

Having that heart attack at such a young age changed Carriann’s perspective on life. She learned just how precious it is.

She adopted an orange tabby cat named Chuy as a divorce present to herself. “I want to be an advocate for women,” says Cariann, “to show them that you can come from nothing and still find a way to build others up. I’m also an animal advocate, with the SPCA and the San Antonio Zoo. Life can be hard unless you have someone supporting you, letting you know that you don’t have to take any kind of abuse, for any reason.”

Cariann met her current husband, Ty Chamberlin, while working as a consultant. Within 6 months they were engaged and the couple married within a year. Cariann loves to work with Ty, but she still enjoys cooking 5 days a week. Her beloved grandmother was Puerto Rican and Cariann is passionate about cooking. She shops at the farmer’s market, taking along her four French bulldogs: Chloe, Bella, Snoopy and Bruno. Chloe actually modeled for Anthony Rubio’s Paws for Fashion show at the Dominion.

“When I met Ty,” says Cariann, “he had a good business, but it was still small. He had his HVAC license, but only one truck. He also had his A license, the highest level in the state of Texas, so I convinced him to venture out into refrigeration. I saw the potential and asked him to give me full financial reign, in order to get his business to the next level.

In the last ten years, we have experienced 75% growth. Together we have built an extensive client list across South and Central Texas. I’m now able to work with facility management companies out of New York, New Jersey and Florida, helping other companies when they need it.”

Cariann feels that their employees are like family and the company’s growth would not have been possible without them. She also admits that her strengths complement those of her husband, which allows them to work very well together. Cariann works from 7 different computers and always has whatever information Ty needs readily available. She organizes her days so that she can stay on top of accounting as well as everything else.

Prevention of problems is key. All systems should get checkups twice a year, in

March or April for A/C and November or December for Heating. It’s usually up to the consumer to understand that they need to pay a reasonably small fee for maintenance in order to avoid having to replace an expensive unit too soon.

Chamberlin explains that with the new technology in HVAC systems, customers can use their phones to share with her what’s going on with their heating or A/C units, and she can sometimes fix it online.

The EPA has mandated more changes for the HVAC business, and Chamberlin believes that its going to be a busy summer as R-22 is going to become obsolete and 410 months is slowly being phased out.

Commercial property owners and residential homeowners should go to her website to contact Cariann in order to get help with navigating these changes.

Chamberlin Mechanical Services, LLC. HVAC Company

Commercial Air Conditioning Installation and Residential HVAC San Antonio, Texas

Phone: (210) 387-9590

Email: info@chamberlinmechanicalservices.com

Mon - Fri: 8:00AM - 5:00PM Sat & Sun: By Appointment