Ted Bendixson has spent years as an active athlete. "Pretty active, actually. I'd go mountain biking, go on hikes, I'd go to the climbing gym," he recounts. But he has a particular love for snowboarding. "Grew up in Colorado, went to school there, and then became a snowboard bum," he says.
Believing he was perfectly healthy because of his lifestyle, he was surprised when a routine health checkup revealed an issue with his heart: a heart murmur. "At the time, I didn't think anything of it."
Discovering the murmur led to further testing (an echocardiogram). It was then that he began to realize something more serious was going on. "Where I felt something might be a little bit off was as I was getting the echocardiogram, they were like, 'We might need to keep you.'" But they didn't keep him at that time.
The Shock: Getting a Mitral Valve Diagnosis
During a follow-up to review his echocardiogram, he was told he had mitral valve regurgitation. This happens when the mitral valve inside the heart doesn’t fully close, allowing blood to flow backward. Ted says that at that visit, he was told he'd definitely need surgery at some point to stay healthy.
The news came as a shock. "It was just kind of out of the blue. I wasn't really ready for it,” Ted says. He remembers being told, "Eventually you're going to stress your heart so much that it's going to give out."
That's when he got serious and began learning more about his condition. "I'm going on the internet, I'm reading about it, and I'm trying to understand what my actual risks are, how this might affect my day-to-day life," he remembers.
Choosing the Right Care Team
Ted was placed on a watch-and-wait plan at first. But a follow-up visit sped up the timeline. Ted was referred to UVA Health for an urgent mitral valve repair.
At UVA Health, Ted found a team that could repair his mitral valve without open-heart surgery. “I was actually pleasantly surprised to find out that the procedure itself is minimally invasive. So that really did put me at ease quite a bit more. It made me feel like, ‘Okay, I'm going to definitely be going through something, but it's not going to be quite as serious as I might have thought.’”
Before the procedure, the UVA Health team carefully checked him out to create the best surgery and recovery plan for him. He recalls, “They did a CT scan and also a transesophageal echocardiogram, just to make sure that everything looked good and that the valve could be repaired.”
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Facing Mitral Valve Repair Surgery & Recovery
Surgery day brought challenges, but also relief. “First woke up from surgery, I was still intubated. I think my eyes were closed. The doctor came in, said that it was repaired. That was great to hear.”
Recovery moved quickly from there. “By the next morning, they had me up and walking. I was doing laps around the unit. It felt good to be walking.” He was discharged just 5 days later. Ted knew that getting active again would be the path to a strong recovery. “Within that first week, I was already climbing stairs. I was hiking a little bit, not very far. I definitely tried to pace myself.”
After Surgery, Back to the Slopes
Just 3 months after surgery, Ted says his mitral valve repair and recovery no longer held him back. “I really didn't feel like the heart valve was an impediment at all.”
He was soon on the slopes again, working to get back up to the impressive tricks he'd mastered in the past. “Actually, within a few runs, I was just hitting jumps, and I was doing some of the old tricks that I used to do. It was just kind of a little bit surreal that I could just do that.”
Now, he’s grateful to be fully active again. “I'm right back to mountain biking, right back to my head-cracking lifestyle. So all was good," he laughs.
What Ted Wants You to Know About Heart Health
Today, Ted spends his time getting air on the slopes, making sure to keep an eye on his heart health. If you're someone with a heart condition or just think you might have one, he has some advice to share:
- Don’t ignore a heart murmur. "That is something to take seriously and not just brush it off.” It might be caused by a serious condition.
- Get the tests you need. Symptoms aren’t always obvious; testing is key to finding problems early. "You might feel fine, like I did, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t something going on that needs attention.”
- Ask questions until you feel informed. “Ask questions. Don’t be afraid to find out exactly what they’re going to do and why.”
- Stay active before surgery to make recovery smoother. “If you’re already active, stay active. If you’re not, start doing what you can. You’re going to heal better if your body’s in good shape before you go in.”
- Follow your care plan. Healing is about pacing yourself, not proving how tough you are. “Don’t try to be a hero. Do what they tell you, even if you feel like you can do more. It’s not about proving you can push harder. It’s about letting your heart heal. If you do your part, then there’s a really strong chance that everything’s going to go well, and you’ll be able to return to your life mostly as it was.”
- Keep up with yearly heart checkups. “Don't take your health for granted. That way, you can prevent something bad from happening later on.”
Watch Ted tell the story of his mitral valve regurgitation, procedure at UVA Health, and recovery:
