I'm a shoe repairman. I've had my business for about 50 some years, 60 now. I usually work eight or nine hours a day, five or six days a week.

Mr. Shavos has a condition called mitral valve regurgitation. He actually went to see his physician for a routine physical, went to see his primary caregiver, who heard his murmur was quite a bit louder, and very appropriately got an echocardiogram, or a sound wave test, to look at the heart and see how well the heart is pumping. It showed the heart had gotten big, and the valve leaked tremendously.

Most patients that get this surgery have a sternotomy, so it opens the breastbone so the surgeon can get in. Now with the robotics, they don't have to do the sternotomy. They can do small holes that the robotics can go in through. They have a video scope so they can see what's going on and repair the valve with the screen and controls outside. So the patient has a much quicker recovery time.

I had no problems at all. They were just really surprised and fascinated how well I had turned out.

He went to the intensive care unit, spent the night, but walked around the intensive care unit. The nurses were saying why is he walking around? Let's send him out to the regular floor, so he went there the next day. Left the hospital two days later. So very unusual, but this is the wave of future.

I woke up, and I didn't feel a thing. I was fine. I was ready to go the following day. I have to take no pills at all, except that they want me to take aspirin. And that's about it.

Mr. Shavos' prognosis today is unbelievably good. His heart now has shrunk back to normal size. It pumps normally. The valve functions normally. He's back doing all the activities he's done before and going 90 miles an hour.

I feel as healthy then as I did beforehand. All my life worked in that shop, and I'm standing up. I hardly ever sat down because I was always doing something.

There are great surgeons a lot of places, but there are very few great teams. So the team is overwhelmingly important, and there's no better team the world like Mayo.

The rest of my body has been in good shape, so as far as they were concerned, I should be around for 100 years or so. Maybe longer.

Feb. 16, 2015