When Lauren Chapple threw out the first pitch at “I Heart Phillies Night” at Citizens Bank Park on July 21st, no one knew just how extraordinary the game would be.
But while they couldn’t have predicted the exact outcome—the Phillies would pull off a win in extra innings thanks to the first walk-off catcher’s interference since 1971—perhaps they should’ve expected something special, given that Lauren herself is so remarkable.
“I had blood clots that were causing an almost 100% blockage of a major area of my lungs,” says the former King’s College soccer player, who started noticing symptoms just before her senior year. “I had a hard time recovering from our preseason fitness test. I couldn’t breathe, I was in pain, and I couldn’t sleep or lie down. When I first went to the hospital in August 2023, they diagnosed me with pneumonia.”
“Eventually, we learned she had multiple blood clots in both lungs,” says Lauren’s mother, Brenda. “We discovered that she has genetic conditions—Factor V Leiden and a prothrombin mutation—that make her more likely to develop them.”
“She was in the ICU for a week, and they performed two procedures to try to remove the blood clots, but both were unsuccessful because the clots were hardened and unable to be removed,” Brenda continues. “She was on blood thinners for three months, but it didn’t help. She couldn’t even run a quarter of a mile without becoming extremely short of breath, whereas before, she would easily run three miles a day.”
“It Felt Like Fate That Lauren Found Me”
But everything changed when Lauren started seeing Anjali Vaidya, MD, FACC, FASE, FACP, Director of the Advanced Pulmonary Hypertension, Right Heart Failure & CTEPH Program at Temple University Hospital.
“She and her team had me do a full day of testing,” Lauren remembers. “They wanted to evaluate everything from all sides. In addition to reviewing my prior CT scans, they did a VQ scan, bloodwork, an echocardiogram, and a chest X-ray.”
Lauren also underwent an invasive cardiopulmonary exercise test (iCPET): a type of heart catheterization that measured her pressures and flows in her heart and lungs, and her gas exchange metabolic parameters with exercise and at rest, to characterize the impact of her blood clots and how they were limiting her cardiac and ventilatory function.
“Several doctors in our area had never even heard of this kind of heart catheterization,” Brenda adds. “Temple has leading technology that others aren’t even aware of.”
From the beginning, there was a special connection between Lauren and her family and Dr. Vaidya. “After that first appointment, I called my husband and told him we’d found the perfect doctor,” Brenda says. “She made us feel so comfortable, and I knew Lauren was in the best hands.”
“It felt like fate that Lauren found me as her CTEPH (chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension) doctor,” Dr. Vaidya shares. “Before I became a physician, I used to play soccer, and Lauren and I were both strikers. We even wore the same jersey number: #10.”
After reviewing her test results, Dr. Vaidya and her team recommended Lauren undergo a pulmonary thromboendarterectomy (PTE): a surgical procedure to remove blood clots in the lungs.
“The VQ scan showed that a significant portion of one of Lauren’s lungs wasn’t receiving blood flow,” Brenda says. “Because she was so physically fit, her body was compensating for her daily activities, but Dr. Vaidya let us know that could change. Lauren wasn’t going to get better without surgery.”
A Pioneering Procedure and World-Class Care
Lauren’s PTE surgery was performed in August 2024 by Yoshiya Toyoda, MD, PhD, Chief of Cardiovascular Surgery at Temple University Hospital and Professor and William Maul Measey Chair of Surgery at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine.
“In Lauren’s case, we were able to do a partial sternotomy, which is a very minimally invasive approach, and one Temple is pioneering,” Dr. Toyoda explains. “The incision is smaller and part of the sternum is left intact, which makes the recovery time quicker.”
While the entire procedure ran 8-9 hours, Lauren’s cardiopulmonary bypass took only two hours, which was exceptional; most cardiopulmonary bypasses take four. “Her circulatory arrest time was also only 24 minutes,” Dr. Toyoda says. “Stopping the circulation of any organ for a prolonged period of time increases the risk of brain damage. A shorter circular arrest time protects the brain and leads to a better outcome.”
“He was just an expert in his field,” Brenda says of Dr. Toyoda. “We learned that Lauren was Temple’s 453rd PTE surgery, and that only one other hospital in the country does more of these procedures.”
“Temple Heart & Vascular Institute has taken care of more CTEPH patients than almost any other hospital in the world,” Dr. Vaidya says. “We’re uniquely experienced in being able to recognize and diagnose CTEPH. Not only do we perform these procedures with an extremely high level of expertise, but all of our decision-making and care management is done at that same level. That’s why we’re able to get people in and out of the ICU and home in such a short period of time, and why we have such exceptional outcomes.”
“We’re so lucky that we were within a two-hour drive of this level of care,” adds Lauren’s dad, Chris. “With the level of professionalism, we just knew we were in the right place. It was an incredible blessing.”
Back to Doing the Things She Loves
Lauren’s surgery was a success—so much so that, only three months later, she was cleared to start running and exercising. On New Year’s Eve, she even ran a 5K with her dad.
“Her disease is cured,” Dr. Vaidya explains. “She has normal cardiac function and a normal quality of life, and she doesn’t need any oxygen. She has to stay on blood thinners, and I’ll continue to monitor her, but that’s standard for everyone with PTE. I’m very optimistic that she’s going to continue to do very well for a very long time.”
It’s an ideal outcome for Dr. Vaidya, who credits the other members of the care team—including Ahmed Sadek, MD; Carly Fabrizio, DO; Mohammed Chowdhury, MD; and Vladimir Lakhter, DO—for their expertise. For her, “to be able to take patients who are so limited in their lives and give them an incredible quality of life back is one of the greatest rewards in medicine.”
That’s certainly been the case for Lauren, who—in addition to taking the pitcher’s mound at Citizens Bank Park—played in her first soccer game since her diagnosis during her college’s Alumni Weekend this April.
“If it weren’t for the Temple CTEPH team, I wouldn’t be able to do the things I love every day,” she says.
Watch our video about Lauren's journey below: