- September 15, 2024
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Hurricane Debby was approaching Aug. 4 as Sapphire Point’s Grace Burnett and her siblings and cousins were getting restless.
They wanted to hang out and have fun, so despite the drizzling rain, they went outside to play Pokemon Go around the neighborhood and when they returned, they decided to go into the pool.
Grace, who is 12, was playing in the pool with her 14-year-old sister, Olivia Burnett, and 14-year-old cousin Abi Burnett when her head started hurting.
She exited the pool and asked her mother, Jillian Burnett, for a glass of water. The headache persisted.
She started screaming due to the excruciating pain from her headache. Then, she was unconscious.
The Burnett family had no idea a headache would turn into weeks in the hospital and heartache as each day comes with new unknowns caused by a brain aneurysm.
As Jillian Burnett and her husband, Bobby, stay by their daughter’s side, they hope to spread awareness about aneurysms and how people with a family history of aneurysms should have a Magnetic Resonance Angiography, which is a type of MRI scan that can help detect aneurysms.
Bobby said it took approximately 10 minutes for the ambulance to arrive. On the way to Sarasota Memorial Hospital, the paramedics kept the sirens off, he said, as the paramedics didn’t know what was happening with Grace and there were too many potential causes for it to be determined as emergent.
She was conscious enough to answer questions like “what day is it?” and “where are you?”
In the emergency room, the situation worsened.
She was in and out of consciousness, shivering and barely able to talk.
While waiting for a CT scan, an emergency room doctor came in and realized Grace was having a seizure. They rushed her to get a CT, and the picture became clear.
A brain aneurysm.
The CT scan showed Grace had a brain aneurysm that ruptured. She needed to be flown to Tampa General Hospital, but Hurricane Debby made it unsafe for a helicopter to be put in the air.
The doctors at Sarasota Memorial Hospital put in an external ventricular drain to help drain fluid from her brain as she was put in an ambulance and driven to Tampa General.
Since then, Bobby said the family has been in “a nightmare that’s going 100 miles an hour that seems to be getting worse and worse.”
“For the next three or four days straight, every day was life or death,” Bobby said. “Every day, we would learn a new reality about her life, about what she’s experienced and about how critical this is.”
For weeks, doctors have been working to manage the swelling in her brain, including a craniotomy and putting Grace in an induced coma. She’s had multiple strokes.
Bobby said they celebrate the small wins when they can, such as when doctors removed the breathing tube that was starting to create other issues with her lungs and tongue.
Grace remains in the Tampa General intensive care unit, and the team of neurologists are debating whether to put a shunt in Grace to help drain the fluid in her brain, but it could cause lifelong challenges.
“We’re waking up every day trying to be somewhat positive and trying to wrap our minds around what is going on,” Bobby said.
In the days leading up to the incident, Bobby said his family was doing tourist activities in Manatee County with his brother Josh and his family, who were visiting from Nicaragua.
Jillian said Grace was thrilled to welcome the family and made her signature brownies with her 2-year-old brother, Bradley. Jillian said whenever someone came to visit or when Bobby came home from a business trip, she always made brownies.
They went to Anna Maria Island and went into the gulf. Grace, who Jillian said is adventurous and fearless, couldn’t wait to get onto the inflatable in the water that after jumping on one side, it would launch her high into the air before she landed in the water with a splash.
The days were filled with happy memories and Grace being the one to make people smile and laugh.
Bobby said his daughter is the epitome of being an outgoing, loving and caring child. She’s a performer and hilarious, he said.
“She loves to bring people together and will do anything to make people happy,” he said. “She had so much going for her, and then all of a sudden, she got smacked in the face with this horrible thing that should never happen.”
Jillian and Bobby said it’s heartbreaking to see their once joyful, bubbly daughter laying in a hospital bed fighting for her life.
The couple said it’s likely Grace was born with the aneurysm.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, although brain aneurysms can affect anyone at any age, they are most likely to affect people between the ages of 30 and 60. In the U.S., up to 6% of people have an aneurysm in their brain that isn’t bleeding, and approximately 30,000 people in the U.S. have a ruptured brain aneurysm each year.
Because of Grace, Jillian and Bobby learned about MRAs, (magnetic resonance angiograms) which can detect brain aneurysms.
Jillian said MRAs should be part of preventive care and covered under insurance. She recommends anyone with a history of brain aneurysms in the family have an MRA completed because ruptures can come out of nowhere. Unruptured aneurysms can be treated.
Bobby said Grace never had headaches and was a healthy child. They never knew she had an aneurysm until it showed up on the CT scan.
Doctors check on Grace every 12 hours to conduct neurological exams.
Bobby has had to return to work, but Jillian is taking leave from work to stay with Grace in Tampa.
Jillian said the couple has had to learn 10 years of medical knowledge in weeks so they can understand what is happening to their daughter and be more informed when having to make potential life-or-death decisions for care.
They are waiting for Grace to wake up to determine her neurological health.
Jillian said this has been a test of strength. At times, she said, she feels weak, but she always remembers she needs to be strong for Grace.
“We’re her only advocate,” Jillian said.
As more people have learned about Grace, Bobby and Jillian said they’ve received an outpouring of love from family, friends, neighbors and more.
They welcome thoughts and prayers as Grace continues to make progress.
“I know how much Graces makes an impact on people, but I never knew to this magnitude to be quite honest,” Jillian said.
When Sapphire Point’s Carolyn Tovell and her daughter Sheridan Tovell, who is best friends with Grace, heard what the Burnett family was going through, they felt helpless. Sheridan wanted to find a way to support her best friend and her family.
Tovell asked people in the community to create posters with words of affirmations to decorate Grace’s hospital room. She said she collected 30 to 40 signs and letters.
But they wanted to do more and so did others.
Sheridan and her sister, Charley, along with Olivia Burnett, Abi Burnett and friends Mila Casey, Mia Apodaca, came together to make bracelets saying “Gracie strong” and plan a lemonade stand.
On Aug. 24, the girls opened their lemonade stand for two hours, selling lemonade, cookies, brownies and more. The girls’ mothers, Tovell, Natalie Apodaca and Angela Casey, had pink (Grace’s favorite color) shirts and hats printed saying “#Graciestrong” with hibiscus, Grace’s favorite flower.
The group raised more than $5,000.
“It was a really awesome day to see so many people come together for Grace,” Carolyn said. “We want Grace back (home).”
Bobby said the family is blown away by the neighbors’ efforts to help the family and put a smile on Grace’s face when she wakes up.
The money raised will go toward a welcome home party and gifts for Grace when she’s finally able to come home.
