7-year-old girl thriving after surprise open heart surgery

(InvestigateTV) — Feelings of fatigue and chest pain after exercise are signs you may have a problem with your heart.

One in 100 people has congenital heart disease, but knowing the warning signs can save your life.

One brave second-grade girl in Goochland knows that firsthand, after needing a surprise heart surgery.

Millie Haenlein was always a little smaller and slower than her peers, but her parents just chalked that up to her starting school early.

“I could only run around for a little bit, and now I can run around for a lot,” Millie said.

“She didn’t have the endurance of the other kids on the team,” Pete Haenlein said of his time coaching his daughter’s soccer team. “She would need to take more frequent breaks and was not as fast. And again, I didn’t think anything of it at the time. I just thought, well, she’s six on a team full of seven and eight, nine-year-olds.”

Millie is now 7 years old and thriving since her open-chest heart surgery just nine months ago.

Read more of Millie’s story by clicking here.