The first problem I see is that $name is local to the while block.
It looks like you are expecting only one row from this query?
If so you don't need a while
Also, you don't test for error on the fetch.
try this...

$pointer = $sth->fetchrow_hashref;
die $sth->errstr if $sth->errstr;
print "NAME = $pointer->{name}<br>";
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