Anna Yutzy: 2025 Riley Champion
After a recent stay at Riley Children’s Health due to a collapsed lung, Anna Yutzy returned home on a Thursday, performed at her high school’s football game on Friday night, and participated in a band competition on Saturday. “I was ready to rock and roll and get back to what I normally do,” she says.
Anna’s father, David, adds, “I think most people would be really surprised by what’s possible with medical challenges.” Anna’s challenges began when she was born with a left diaphragmatic hernia. She was immediately LifeLined to Riley Children’s, where she spent the next 10 months. “There was so much uncertainty as to what her outcome was going to be,” David recalls.
Within her first week of life, Anna needed ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation), the highest level of life support. The machine took over the work of her heart and lungs while doctors determined the best treatment for her severe pulmonary hypertension. “Without Riley, Anna wouldn’t have survived,” David says. “Every problem that we came across, they had an answer or at least a direction to move in.”
After surgery to repair her hernia, Anna went through extensive physical, occupational, and speech therapy, and benefited from family support services like music therapy. She continues to use a wheelchair for stamina, and a tracheostomy and ventilator help her breathe. Over the years of follow-up appointments, the Yutzy family found what they call “a second family” in the Riley team who have cared for their daughter. “From the medical staff to the people that prep the food, they’re all heroes,” David says.
It’s easy to see how Anna, now a bubbly and determined sophomore in high school, became a pageant queen. She is the 2024 Teen for the Indiana chapter of Miss Amazing, which advocates for girls and women with disabilities. On top of pageant activities, Anna stays busy playing percussion in marching band and showing rabbits for 4-H. “She is a true testament of everything Riley stands for,” says her mother, Alyssa. “She lives life to the fullest.”