“I was nine days old when my parents found out I had a congenital heart defect,” says 10-year-old Sadie Chapman. “We did some research and found out that UAB was one of the best places for her to be,” adds her mother, Bernadette. Sadie had her first heart surgery at UAB when she was nine months old.

"The world fell out from under me”
Bernadette: “Sadie had a heart murmur. She was born a little over two weeks early and the doctors thought the valves just hadn’t closed up. There was no sign anything was wrong, and they sent us down to cardiology here at UAB and they did an echocardiogram and that’s when we found out that Sadie had only one ventricle.” 

“When we found out, the world just fell out from under me. It’s a feeling that you can’t describe. I remember the doctor talking about left ventricles and thinking back to my high school biology class trying to put it all together and figure out what was going on.”

“There was no sign anything was wrong.”
-Bernadette Chapman

Heart surgery
Bernadette: “Sadie had surgery at nine months – the Glenn Procedure, here at UAB. Then at age eight she had the Fontan procedure. Now she shouldn’t need surgery again, she should be fine.” 

The Glenn procedure is performed on infants with heart defects in which only one of the pumping chambers (ventricles) works fully. The main blood vessel returning the unoxygenated blood from the head and upper body is connected to the lungs in order to oxygenate the blood. The Fontan procedure directs the blood coming back from the lower body directly to the lungs. The idea in both procedures is to get the oxygenated blood to flow passively to the lungs without the heart having to work so hard to pump it. 

Sadie: “The doctors at UAB are very nice. My cardiologist Dr. Pearce and all the other doctors that I’ve known here are very sweet. It’s kind of scary, right before the operation, but all the nurses are really sweet, so they make you feel like it’s going to be fine. And all the doctors there are highly, number-one recommended.”

"I trust UAB”
Sadie: “I trust UAB because if they’ve studied this hard just to take care of kids my age then they must care about us.” Bernadette: “When we found out about Sadie’s heart defect, we were, like, “Okay, well, what do we need to do? Where do we need to go?” And Dr. Pearce said, ‘Well, UAB’s one of the best.’ 

“We could have had her surgery here or in Boston, but we called around, and we found out that, for her heart defect, UAB was premiere in the world. And it was right down the road from where we live. 

“I thought UAB was great. There are a lot of very caring people - the nurses and especially the doctors, like Dr. Kirklin. I loved the idea of a teaching hospital where they’re constantly doing research, and Dr. Kirklin even came up with a different way to handle Sadie’s defect from the time she was born to when she had her second heart surgery two years ago. So they’re always making advances here.” 

Sadie: “I have a stuffed bunny I named Bennett after my doctor, Bennett Pearce. My grandma got it right before I went to my heart surgery at nine months. He was white and had a pink ribbon and his ears stuck up and now he’s cream-colored and his ears are floppy so you can tell he’s had lots of love. I named him after Dr. Pearce because I could trust him - he is probably my favorite doctor because he’s funny, he’s sweet, there’s no other doctor that is better than he is.” 

“If UAB doctors have studied this hard just to take care of kids my age then they must care about us.” -Sadie Chapman

Life goes on
Sadie: “I would tell a friend going through heart surgery that you have to be comforted by UAB - they’re the best doctors that you can find. Everything’s gonna be fine - just do what the doctors tell you to do. I take my medicine every morning and every night.” 

Bernadette: “I make her be a regular kid. My attitude is, ‘You will walk, you will run, as much as you can, you’ll do gym class, you’ll do dance classes.’ I try and make her eat her vegetables!” 

Sadie: “I try to be careful with my chest.” 

Bernadette: “I think the doctor said go on.” 

Sadie: “Yeah, just go on. I try to be a normal kid and do the regular activities like jump on the trampoline, do gymnastics, take dance, play basketball. I like going to the zoo with all my friends.” 

Bernadette: “Dr. Pearce said, ‘We don’t work this hard to have the kids be kept in a box.’ They want them to live.” 

“Dr. Pearce said, ‘We don’t work this hard to have the kids be kept in a box." -Bernadette Chapman