McHenry 1-year-old’s open heart surgery Wednesday was success, mom says

Hannah Willingham turned 1 year old on June 2. Five days later, she underwent a 16-hour open heart surgery in California meant to ensure the McHenry girl has a long, healthy life, her mother said.

Born with the heart deformity tetralogy of Fallot, Hannah had two surgeries by the time she was three months old. She was featured in a Northwest Herald story on her birthday as the family waited in California for the final procedure to fix her heart.

Wednesday’s surgery, at Stanford University’s Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, was a complete success, said her mother, Anne Willingham, a second-grade teacher at McHenry School District 15′s Valley View Elementary.

Before the surgery began, she and Hannah’s dad, Jeremy, met with her surgeon, Dr. Frank Hanley, who went over the risks involved.

“They warned us that the surgery could take 16 to 30 hours,” she said, and that if the surgeon could not fix everything, Hannah may have to return in six months for another surgery.

Once Hannah was in surgery, and since their 6-year-old daughter, Emilee, is with them, they chose to go out to breakfast, take Emilee swimming at a hotel pool, and go to a mall near the hospital.

Every two hours, they would get a call to update them on how the surgery was progressing, Willingham said.

“It feels impossible. I don’t know what any parent is supposed to do when they find out their child’s heart is not beating.”

—  Mother Anne Willingham

“The hardest update was ... when they said she was on cardiac bypass,” Willingham said. “It feels impossible. I don’t know what any parent is supposed to do when they find out their child’s heart is not beating.”

The last call, that Hannah was out of surgery and that the doctor wanted to talk to them, came at midnight. “We were there in three minutes, and we waited for about five minutes for the surgeon. It felt like three hours,” Willingham said.

“Her heart is beating on its own, and it looks great” they were told, she said.

Because the surgery went so well, there is no need for a later revision. Hannah will remain sedated and intubated until probably Sunday, allowing her lungs to get oxygen and her heart to recover. They hope to be back in Illinois in three weeks.