Merryn and Lee Merrifield registered their two daughters, Anna and Elena, for the Heart Foundation’s Jump Rope for Heart program on 30 July this year – a very significant date for the Ballarat family.
Exactly six years earlier, Merryn and Lee were at Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, awaiting the open-heart surgery that would save three-week-old Anna’s life.
Shortly after Anna’s birth, the couple learned their newborn had a heart murmur. An ultrasound scan revealed a hole in her heart.
In many babies, a hole in the heart will close on its own over time and only requires monitoring. Merryn and Lee were cleared to take Anna home from hospital. However, in coming days they became increasingly concerned about Anna’s health.
“As a newborn, Elena had looked serene when sleeping,” Merryn said. “But when Anna was asleep, her lungs heaved and it looked as though she was using every muscle in her little body to breathe. It was completely different to her older sister and very worrying.”
A second scan when Anna was a week old showed she actually had two holes in her heart – one between the upper chambers, and one between the lower chambers.
This was a serious scenario, and the very next day the family was referred to Royal Children’s Hospital. Specialists there told Merryn and Lee that Anna needed open-heart surgery as soon as possible. She had her operation on 1 August 2014.
“It was surreal,” Merryn said. “In just three weeks, I had gone from giving birth to sending my tiny baby off for invasive surgery. But we understood that Anna needed the operation and that she was in good hands.”
Anna recovered well, and apart from annual check-ups with her heart specialist, she is now like any other six-year-old kid.
“We were extremely lucky, and that’s why Anna and Elena were so keen to sign up for the Jump Rope program at their school, Ballarat Grammar
