She didn’t know it then, but 68 years after lifesaving surgery, a Columbus woman says her recovery was nothing short of a miracle.
By Maureen Gilmer, IU Health senior writer, mgilmer1@iuhealth.org
Cindy Allen-Stuckey couldn’t shake the tears that threatened to spill down her cheeks as she walked into Riley Hospital for Children earlier this month.
At 74, she’s certainly not a little girl anymore. But that’s how she felt, she said, like the scared 6-year-old she once was when she underwent one of the first open-heart surgeries in Riley history.
The year was 1956, and Riley’s pediatric heart surgery program was in its infancy. Drs. Paul R. Lurie and Harris B. Schumaker Jr. were two of the acclaimed heart specialists treating the young patient known then as Cynthia Winn.
Dr. Lurie was Indiana’s first pediatric cardiologist and the first chief of pediatric cardiology at Riley. He and his team would go on to achieve many cardiac breakthroughs over the next few decades.
It was in 1956 that Dr. Schumaker performed Indiana’s first pediatric open-heart surgery. Allen-Stuckey’s surgery was in March of that same year. She remembers her dad carrying a folded piece of paper in his billfold for years. On it was a sketch drawn by Dr. Schumaker of the little girl’s heart and how he would repair a defect that often left her struggling to catch her breath.
Allen-Stuckey was diagnosed with an atrial septal defect (a hole in the heart) and anomalous pulmonary venous drainage (pulmonary veins drain into the right atrium instead of the left atrium).
“My parents were told if I didn’t have surgery, I would die,” the Columbus woman said during a return visit to Riley to share her story.
“Can you imagine? Sixty-eight years ago. It was a miracle.”
That’s how she feels now, but at the time, that 6-year-old girl only knew that she was frightened. She missed her parents and her Shelby County home.
Unlike today when parents can stay with their children around the clock, visiting hours back then were restricted to a small window of time twice per week. It was long before the days of family-centered care championed by Riley’s Dr. Morris Green and replicated at children’s hospitals around the country.
The doctors were amazing, she says now with the benefit of perspective, but it was the young student nurses who made her nine-day stay a little easier, she recalls.
“They were like surrogate moms to me. They read to me and played with me.”
Her mother left her small, wrapped gifts for each day that she was hospitalized.
Before the surgery, Allen-Stuckey couldn’t run and play like other kids her age. Being out in winter could be dangerous. When she was a baby, she was hospitalized in Franklin with respiratory problems that left her weak. But after the surgery, she made up for lost time.
“My grandmother taught me to run, to climb a fence, ride a bike.”
Still, she said, “I wasn’t very strong.”
But she was determined.
She would go on to become a first-grade teacher for many years, before moving into organizational development and training in private industry. She delivered a son, Brandon, 43 years ago at what is now known as IU Health University Hospital, and he ended up being treated at Riley shortly after birth for a blood disorder.
Other than one follow-up visit to Riley after her surgery in 1956, Allen-Stuckey doesn’t recall any further treatment for her heart condition, and her parents never talked about it.
Only in the past couple of years, when she thought her heart was racing again and she saw a cardiologist did she begin to process her experiences as a child.
Now an author, speaker and coach, she shares part of that journey in a new book titled “The Shift Café – How to Step into the Power of Your Potential.”
By sharing her story, she hopes to shine a light on the pioneering medical care she received at Riley so many years ago and to encourage others to reach for more, regardless of their circumstances.
“I just want every child to reach their potential, to follow their dreams. Walking into Riley today, I was in tears. It was like I was little 6-year-old Cindy again,” she said.
“But that little girl made it. And look how well she’s done.”
Photos submitted and by Mike Dickbernd, IU Health visual journalist, mdickbernd@iuhealth.org. Sketch by Emily Woodthorp.
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