At 91, Marlene Zinn does not look or sound like someone interested in slowing down.

Her days are full, by design. She paints. Goes to art school. Attends foreign film courses. Goes to shows and plays. Entertains. Organizes outings. Travels. And she helps care for feral cats in her east Boca Raton community, coordinating volunteers who feed them and make sure they get spayed or neutered. She has two cats of her own, too.

“I love keeping busy. I try to keep going as best I can,” Ms. Zinn says with a warm smile. "I’m just so content and happy."

(Watch now: 91-year-old Marlene Zinn leads a busy life with her friends in Boca Raton — and has no interest in slowing down. That’s why, when she developed a serious problem with her heart, she turned to the experts at Baptist Health Heart & Vascular Care. Video by Alcyene de Almeida Rodrigues.)

Her circle of friends in Boca Raton is especially important to her. Together, they take classes, attend cultural events and travel. Over the years, they’ve gone to South Africa, Dubai, Cannes, France, Spain, Italy and England. Ms. Zinn still has places she wants to see.

““I have the most wonderful friends. ”My friends and I love to travel,” she says. “There are many places I haven’t been that I would like to still go to.” One of those places is Japan. She was hoping to travel there this spring — until her heart suddenly demanded attention and forced a change of plans.

A Scare on New Year’s Eve

Last New Year’s Eve, Ms. Zinn was hosting a party when she noticed her heart beating much too fast.

“I’ve had supraventricular tachycardia in the past,” she says. “My heart beats very fast and thumps in my chest. I thought that’s what I was having.”

Still, in characteristic fashion, she carried on with the evening.

“I wanted to continue to have the party,” she says. “After we counted down to midnight, I asked my friends, ‘Who’s taking me to the hospital?’” Boca Raton Regional Hospital, part of Baptist Health, is just a few miles from her residence.

There, doctors discovered that she was in atrial fibrillation, or AFib, an irregular heart rhythm she had not had before. Her heart needed to be shocked back into a normal rhythm. Further testing also revealed a serious problem with her mitral valve, one of the heart’s four valves.

“They saw my mitral valve was so bad that they would have to repair it,” Ms. Zinn says.

A Referral to Minimally Invasive Valve Repair Expert

For Ms. Zinn, the diagnosis was connected to a long history she had not fully understood for much of her life. She had been born with mitral valve prolapse, a condition in which the mitral valve fails to close normally. But she didn’t learn about it until she was around 30, after a serious infection — bacterial endocarditis — landed her in the hospital for months.

“I was fine after that,” she says. “But little by little, my mitral valve got worse.”

That was 60-some years ago. By early 2026, her mitral valve had reached the point where treatment could not wait.

John DiSilvestro, M.D., Ms. Zinn’s physician in Boca Raton, referred her to cardiothoracic surgeon Tom C. Nguyen, M.D., system chief executive of Baptist Health Heart & Vascular Care and chief medical executive of Baptist Health Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute, as well as director of minimally invasive surgery and the Barry T. Katzen Endowed Chair at Baptist Health Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute and chair and professor of the Department of Cardiovascular Sciences at Florida International University Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine. 

From her very first meeting with Dr. Nguyen, Ms. Zinn says she felt reassured.

“His whole staff was warm and friendly and inviting and soft spoken,” she recalls. “I went with my son, and he was also impressed. I just felt very comfortable being there.”

“In a healthy heart, the valve closes tightly when the heart squeezes, allowing blood to move forward to the body. But in mitral regurgitation, the valve doesn’t close properly. Blood leaks backward into the upper chamber and can back up toward the lungs.”

Tom C. Nguyen, M.D., cardiothoracic surgeon, system chief executive, Baptist Health Heart & Vascular Care, chief medical executive, Baptist Health Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute

What Happens When a Heart Valve Leaks

Tom C. Nguyen, M.D.

An internationally recognized expert in minimally invasive valve repairs, Dr. Nguyen says the mitral valve helps control blood flow between the heart’s upper and lower left chambers.

“In a healthy heart, the valve closes tightly when the heart squeezes, allowing blood to move forward to the body,” he explains. “But in mitral regurgitation, the valve doesn’t close properly. Blood leaks backward into the upper chamber and can back up toward the lungs.”

This can make the heart work harder and may cause fatigue, shortness of breath, swelling in the feet and abnormal rhythms such as AFib. Left untreated, severe mitral regurgitation can lead to worsening heart function and heart failure, Dr. Nguyen says.

Ms. Zinn’s AFib added another concern. AFib can allow blood clots to form in a small pouch of the heart called the left atrial appendage. If a clot travels to the brain, it can cause a stroke — something that would have to be addressed during her surgery.

Individualized Care from a Multidisciplinary Team

Nish Patel, M.D.

Nish Patel, M.D., director of the Center for Heart Valves at Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute, also was part of Ms. Zinn’s care team. He says Ms. Zinn’s case demonstrates the importance of individualized care provided by a multidisciplinary team.

“Although a catheter-based option could have been considered, the team believed minimally invasive surgery could give Ms. Zinn the best valve result and the best chance to return to her very active life,” Dr. Patel says.

The goal was not simply to treat a valve. It was to help Ms. Zinn get back to the people, places and activities she loves — to what Dr. Patel calls a “better normal life.”

Phenomenal Candidate for Minimally Invasive Valve Repair

Dr. Nguyen, Dr. Patel and the rest of her team at Baptist Health Heart & Vascular Care looked not only at Ms. Zinn’s age, but also her overall health, activity level and goals. Chronologically, she was 91. Biologically, however, she seemed much younger.

 “She was active, strong, symptomatic and otherwise in good condition,” says Dr. Nguyen, noting that she was also so warm and full of life and had such a positive attitude. “This made her a phenomenal candidate for surgery.”

Smaller Incision, Faster Recovery

Traditional mitral valve surgery is often performed through a sternotomy, in which the breastbone is opened to reach the heart. That approach can be highly effective, but recovery takes longer because the breastbone needs time to heal.

For Ms. Zinn’s operation, Dr. Nguyen used a minimally invasive approach. Instead of opening the breastbone, he and his team made a small incision on the right side of the chest and went between the ribs to reach the mitral valve. Specialized long instruments allow the surgeon to work through the small opening and reach the heart.

For many appropriate patients, this approach can mean less disruption to the body, less time in the intensive care unit, shorter hospital stays and a faster return to normal activities.

Dr. Nguyen says that when mitral valve repair is possible for primary degenerative mitral regurgitation, such as what Ms. Zinn suffered from, repair is generally preferred over replacement. “Repair preserves the patient’s own valve and, for the right patients, it can offer excellent long-term results,” he says.

Back on Her Feet the Day After Surgery

Ms. Zinn had her surgery on March 9. Her children were there with her — her daughter came down from Maryland to be there and her son from Plantation was present as well.

Her procedure went smoothly, according to Dr. Nguyen. It allowed him to not only repair Ms. Zinn’s mitral valve and address the severe leakage, but also close her left atrial appendage to help reduce Afib-related stroke risk.

“I was fine,” she says of her surgery. “I really didn’t have much pain. I just felt good.”

She recovered in the hospital from Monday to Friday. When she returned home, she didn’t even need a walker.

Less than a month after her surgery, Ms. Zinn has already resumed much of her routine, even hosting the production team that interviewed her for this story, along with several close friends she had invited to watch. For several hours, she was not just the subject but also the consummate hostess, putting out coffee, water and an array of treats and snacks for her guests.

Restoring Her Quality of Life

Dr. Nguyen describes Ms. Zinn’s recovery as “remarkable,” noting that she was walking around the ICU just two days after surgery. He says that this is exactly the type of recovery that minimally invasive surgery is designed to support: “helping patients get back on their feet quickly and return to their lives sooner.”

Ms. Zinn’s story carries an important message, adds Dr. Nguyen. Patients and families should not assume that age alone determines whether someone can benefit from advanced heart care.

“A 91-year-old who is active, engaged and otherwise strong may still be an excellent candidate for treatment — especially when evaluated by a multidisciplinary valve team that considers the whole person, not just the number of candles on the birthday cake,” Dr. Nguyen says.

In Ms. Zinn’s case, repairing her mitral valve helped restore the quality of life she enjoyed before she landed in the hospital. It also helped protect her future — including the possibility of more travel, more classes, more outings and more time with the friends who keep life lively.

“I felt I was totally well cared for. Everybody was so pleasant and so warm and so helpful—they felt like family. I don’t think I needed anything that wasn’t supplied. I really had a wonderful experience.”

Marlene Zinn, minimally invasive valve repair patient, Baptist Health Heart & Vascular Care

“I Really Had a Wonderful Experience”

Ms. Zinn’s gratitude is clear and she says she would recommend Baptist Health Heart & Vascular Care “in a heartbeat.”

“I felt I was totally well cared for,” Ms. Zinn says. “Everybody was so pleasant and so warm and so helpful — they felt like family. I don’t think I needed anything that wasn’t supplied. I really had a wonderful experience.”

And as for her planned trip to Japan with her friends? Dr. Nguyen has encouraged her to go and enjoy herself. “Send me some pictures,” he tells her.

Click here for more information about the services and specialists available at Baptist Health heart & Vascular Care.