DAVENPORT, Iowa — With music filling the Burchett house on a Tuesday afternoon, it’s difficult for Monica Burchett to remember what her daughter has been through saying, “It’s hard to go back and think about that day. We’re so fortunate to have a daughter that came home with us.”
Anne Burchett is 12 years old. She had open heart surgery when she was just ten, in 2019. The procedure was for a partial anomalous pulmonary venous return; also known as a PAP-VR.
It means Anne had pulmonary veins that return blood to the right atrium instead of the left. She was diagnosed with a heart murmur when she was just two weeks old. It was something her doctor thought she would outgrow with age.
But when Anne was ten, at her regular checkup, it became clear more action needed to be taken. Monica saying, “When we went for the MRI and heard she had something a little different going on than originally expected. It was going to lead to open heart surgery to be able to fix it. I was really just taken aback. I did not expect that at all.”
Anne remembers the day she found out she needed to surgery as well. She says she was frightened by the idea. “I remember it was on the car ride home and I was not quite sure what they meant by that. I was kind of scared because it was like, surgery? What?”
That procedure happened three months later in April of 2019. Monica says the family was doing okay until the day before the surgery. It was when Anne had her pre-operation check up that the reality of the operation set in for the Burchett’s.
The day of the surgery the family drove to the University of Iowa Children’s Hospital. Anne says she has one final memory before the operation. For her it was the hardest part of the whole thing. “Leaving my parents, that was the hardest part of it all. Having to say goodbye, going through those doors, getting on the table.”
Monica has different memories from that day. She says there were other families members present at the hospital that day, but her and her husband waited alone, just the two of them. “I remember just my husband and I, Anne’s dad and I, we were waiting just in a waiting room together.”
The surgery took about five hours. Over the course of that time someone with the hospital gave text updates to the Burchett’s on what was happening with the surgery. After Anne was out of surgery and stable, the Burchett’s finally got to see their daughter.
Monica says it was nerve wrecking, and an emotional part of the already taxing day. “I don't know that you can really prepare yourself for what you're going to see initially post-surgery.”
The road to recovery started bumpy for Anne. She had trouble adjusting to some of her medications that made her parents nervous for the road ahead of them. Monica saying, “You just really worry how long is this recovery going to be.”
After six days, Anne was able to go home saying, “It was a very long stay at the hospital and I was just happy to be home.”
Two years later, and it’s a distant memory. Monica saying sometimes it’s hard to remember it happened. “Sometimes it’s not until I see that scar that I think oh gosh she went through all this and I guess I just hope she understands what she was able to persevere through.”
The family is celebrating this year at the American Heart Association Heart Ball. Anne is the Heart Ball princess for the big event. This year it will be held online. Anne shares she’s excited to be a part of it, and for her mom Monica, its another reminder of what her daughter has overcome.
“It was great because it was like she didn’t miss a beat and was god enough to carry on and just live life.”
Anne, just like her heart, never missing a beat.