Forsyth County deputy's baby beats odds in emergency heart surgery

FORSYTH COUNTY, Ga. - A Forsyth County deputy and his wife took their baby daughter, Adeline, to see a doctor thinking she had a common cold. It turned out it was much more, leading to her undergoing emergency heart surgery.

The doctors at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston were successful, but her parents, Nathan and Bella Burks, say there were times they were worried their baby girl would not make it to the New Year.

"Life threw us a curveball, and we’re rolling with it the best we can," Nathan said.

The couple was out shopping one day this past fall when they noticed their newborn wasn’t quite herself.

"Really, no cause for concern. We just chalked it up to her being fussy," Adeline’s father said. "We noticed a discoloration. She seemed a little more pale than usual. She had some bluish tint around her mouth."

The doctor told the couple to take Adeline in immediately.

"The doctor looked at the nurse and said, ‘Call EMS,’" her father recalled.

The infant was diagnosed on Nov. 16, 2023, with rhinovirus, pneumonia, and viral meningitis. However, when the doctors at the hospital ran tests, they found something else strange.

"’Hey, something looks a little off with her heart, let’s take a deeper look at that,’" Nathan recalled the doctors telling him. "They call it a large PDA. One of the valves in her heart was way too big in comparison to where it needed to be, and it was pulling blood from her heart and pushing it into her lungs."

Doctors emphasized how severe the condition was with a grim statement.

"This, untreated at the magnitude that it was, she probably wouldn’t have made it to the end of the year," the father said.

The day after Christmas, she went into the operating room to have surgery. Hours later, she would emerge, the surgery deemed a success.

"She’s breathing so well, they just moved her out of the ICU," her father said.

Both parents had to take time off from work, and the bills started piling up. Neighbors started a GoFundMe page which has raised more than $23,000 to help the family pay for expenses.

"And we have absolutely been blessed by the community," Nathan said.

Baby Adeline is back home now and recovering as the family struggles to recover financially from this unexpected surgery.