A Magazine from Akron Children's
Peering out the bay window of her living room, 4-year-old Anna Daugherty is the picture of health with a bright smile and giggly personality. Few would guess the dress she’s wearing today — pink tulle adorned with sequined butterflies — hides the scars of a battle she fought before her first birthday.
Anna entered the world in October 2021, the first child of parents Abi and Jack Daugherty. Both nurses at Akron Children’s, they were surprised when Anna’s pediatrician kept mentioning a heart murmur that wasn’t going away during her first month of life. Referred to Akron Children’s Heart Center for further testing, Abi wasn’t overly concerned.
“I almost didn’t go to the appointment because she was completely asymptomatic,” said Abi, clinical coordinator in the Akron Children’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Summa. “We see transient – temporary and harmless – murmurs all the time in the NICU. They
can be very common.
“I thought, am I really going to take my 1-month-old daughter to an echocardiogram (echo) that’s going to take two hours only for them to give me a high five and send me on my way?” she added.
While she did end up keeping the appointment, Abi was unconcerned enough that she told her husband to stay home.
During Anna’s imaging test, Abi, who has seen her share of echos at work, caught on that there was some mixing of blood in Anna’s heart that probably wasn’t supposed to be there. Afterward, Abi sat down with Stephen Manu, MD, a pediatric cardiologist. He explained Anna had a heart defect called atrioventricular (AV) canal, a large hole between her upper heart chambers, or atria, and a very tiny defect between her lower chambers, or ventricles.
The defect also affected Anna’s mitral valve leaving a gap, or “cleft,” in the valve that would leave her with a leaky valve if not repaired. She would need surgery before she turned 1. The timing, Dr. Manu explained, was important.
“As she got older and more active, recovery would be harder,” Abi said. “It made sense to do it before she started walking or showing symptoms.”
Looking back, Abi and Jack said there may have been subtle signs they missed.
“Anna was small on the growth chart and very fussy,” said Jack, a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) staff nurse. “We thought it was colic, but now we wonder if it was related to her heart.”
While they waited for Anna to grow, cardiology experts followed her closely. Every few months, she underwent routine imaging to ensure her defect wasn’t progressing too fast or negatively impacting her.
“I was so impressed with the ultrasound technicians at Akron Children’s,” said Abi. “They were patient and kind. They played with Anna; had games, toys and snacks on hand; and put on her favorite shows.”
Anna’s surgery took place May 12, 2022. The Daughertys appreciated that the surgical team took the time to introduce themselves — from Anna’s cardiovascular surgeon, Dr. Robert Stewart, to the anesthesiologist and nurses who would be in the operating room.
Dr. Stewart explained, “We repaired her heart through her breastbone and had to place her on a heart-lung bypass machine to allow us to operate inside her heart.”
“We closed the large hole with a patch made from her own heart sack and repaired the cleft in her mitral valve with very fine stitches,” he added. “The hole in her lower chamber was so small we decided to leave it alone.”
As Abi sat in the surgical waiting room, she said it was strange to think about the fact that her daughter’s heart wasn’t beating while she was on bypass.
“We had family come and sit with us all day. We prayed,” she said. “Whatever the outcome, that outcome wasn’t up to us. We had to trust that God had Anna every step of the way.”
They also felt deep support from their work family at Akron Children’s NICU at Summa.
“I had used family medical leave and all of my PTO for my maternity leave,” said Abi. “My manager helped me get personal leave — and my co-workers covered my shifts and took up a collection for us. It’s a huge testament to the kinds of people Akron Children’s hires.”
“I was still in nursing school at the time of Anna’s surgery, and one of my nursing instructors took care of Anna in the PICU,” said Jack. “It just felt like everywhere we turned there was someone we knew from somewhere willing to care for us, love us and come alongside us. It was amazing.”
With surgery long behind her, Anna is meeting all her age-appropriate developmental milestones. She enjoys dancing, singing, dressing up, looking at books and riding her bike. She’s an especially good mommy to her baby dolls!
Anna spent two days in the PICU before being discharged home.
“It was wild being home, looking at her chest and
realizing she just had open-heart surgery two days ago,” Abi said. “We had to be careful how we picked her up due to sternal precautions, but she settled back into her routine quickly.”
Within a month, Anna was drinking more from her bottle and gaining weight. She moved from the 25th percentile to the 50th.
“As soon as they fixed her heart, she gained weight,” said Jack. “That probably wasn’t a coincidence.”
“They say kids are resilient — and she really was,” Abi said. “She bounced back quickly. You’d never know she went through something so traumatic.”
Today, Anna is hitting all her developmental milestones. She sees her cardiologist, J.R. Bockoven, annually for a checkup. Though she still has a very small ventricular septal defect (VSD) and a murmur, neither currently requires treatment.
“She will never need to have anything done about her VSD, and while her mitral valve works great now, she will need to have echocardiogram tests throughout her life to monitor its function,” said Dr. Stewart.
In 2024, the Daughertys welcomed their second child, a son named Nathan. They say Anna’s health journey has changed the way they view parenting. Though her heart carries a scar, it’s a gentle reminder of all the laughter, growth and more childhood to come.
“As medical professionals, it’s easy to think we have more control than we do,” Abi said. “But as parents, we’ve learned how much is truly out of our hands. In our profession, we’ve seen how much worse it can be. It’s made us grateful for the health our kids do have.”
Abi gets to hold Anna for the first time following her surgery at 7 months old to repair her heart defect.
From inspiring stories, to medical miracles, the More childhood, pleaseTM magazine will make you appreciate those precious 6,574 days of childhood.
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