Patient Story of Dylan Kempers

My Story

About Me (In My Own Words)

Update on 4/19/23: Today I celebrated the second anniversary of my robotics mitral valve repair by running the legendary Boston Marathon (26.2 miles)! This was my first marathon since my surgery. I feel fantastic!! I'm 59 years old and running 5 miles almost everyday (was a marathon runner before the surgery). With Boston I completed the Six Star World Marathon Majors. The other five are New York, Tokyo, Chicago, Berlin and London, which I had run from 2016 to 2019. Planning to continue running marathons for the rest of my life!!

Update on 4/19/22: Today marks the first anniversary of my robotics mitral valve repair. My surgery went well, but I had several complications during the recovery months which sent me back to the ER a couple of times (afib episodes, anaphylaxis caused by a medicine, pleurisy, etc). Today I can say I'm 100% recovered. I'm 58 years old and running 5 miles almost everyday (I was a marathon runner before the surgery). I'm planning to run my next marathon (26.2 miles) in the next few months. This last year has been for me a transformative experience spiritually, mentally, physically and emotionally. I'm definitely not the same person. I have learned a lot about myself, other people, life priorities and, of course, the human body.

Original Post: I was diagnosed with mild Mitral Valve prolapse and regurgitation when I was 26 years old. I'm now 57. I never had any symptoms. When I was 44, I was told that the regurgitation was escalating, so I started monitoring it more closely, with annual echos, EKGs, etc. My regurgitation became severe a few years ago, but still no symptoms. As a matter of fact, I've been running marathons since 2009. In January 2021 I started feeling arrhythmias and palpitations. I had other tests performed, consulted with a couple of cardiologists (besides mine). They all concluded that I shouldn't wait too much to have my MV repaired, which happened on April 2021.