What would you do if you had a second chance at life?
Basketball star Dylan Kalambay knew exactly what he was born to do and stopped at nothing to achieve it. In the upcoming film, Heart & Sole: The Dylan Kalambay Story, directed by Michael Hamilton, the six-foot-nine athlete shares his harrowing journey from being a promising basketball player on Canada Basketball’s U16 national team to suddenly becoming a transplant recipient.
At the young age of 16 years old, a time when a young man should only have to focus on school, friends and having fun, Kalambay’s life changed entirely. Though he had goals to play Division 1 basketball, that dream was forced to be put on the back burner when he discovered he had a life-threatening heart condition. Scholarship offers from Ivy League schools such as Yale were put on pause and instead, replaced with a fear of uncertainty.
October 2019 is when the symptoms began. He started feeling a little sick and developed a cough, which quickly worsened to shortness of breath by November. He immediately knew something was wrong when he went on a trip with his basketball team.
“…I was able to play one game and then, I played the first few minutes of the second game, but I realized that I couldn’t,” Kalambay said in an interview with Now Toronto.
When he returned, he saw a school nurse and she found that his heart rate was at 200 beats per minute, which is much higher than average. Following a series of multiple hospital visits and inconclusive blood tests, he finally got a diagnosis during a visit at SickKids Hospital in Toronto.
“…They told me that I had a condition called dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) which is essentially when the left ventricle of the heart is weakened and it starts to swell and it doesn’t really pump blood to the rest of your body, as it should,” he explained.
“So, they had told me that the best option to try and heal that would be for an open heart surgery in which I’ll get a device put in called LVAD which is a left ventricular assist device and so, that would go into the left ventricle to try and help it relax and do a little bit of the work for it,” he added.
On December 18, 2019, Kalambay had the surgery and from there, his road to recovery was set in motion. He started to feel slightly better little by little everyday. Simple tasks such as walking around and not being out of breath became easier.
At this time, things were looking optimistic for the aspiring athlete. Doctors told him to monitor himself for three months and assess his recovery. However, if his body did not improve in the next three months, he would have to consider keeping the LVAD for the rest of his life or undergo a heart transplant.
“…For the next three months, I was hoping that things would get better but unfortunately, they didn’t. So, I had a long conversation with my parents, my family, some close friends, and then eventually decided to enlist for a transplant. And so, I think it was five months that I was actually on the list and I had my heart transplant in November of 2020. And then ever since then, I had started training and getting back in shape to play and then actually, I played my first game back in September of 2021,” Kalambay said.
During this lengthy process to rehabilitation, many would imagine a mountain of challenges along the way such as adjusting and adapting to a new heart to understand its limits and capabilities.
After the first two months with the new organ, Kalambay says he finally noticed some significant progression where he started to feel more like himself again. But even then, there were times where his limits were tested and he needed extra warm ups and cool downs to ensure he wasn’t overextending himself to the point of injury.
“I think the thing that was really hard to get used to was probably just my cardiovascular health because I felt like as someone who was aspiring to be at such a high level, having to backtrack all the way down to barely being able to walk more than 20 steps a day really takes its toll. And for a while it was really like, ‘Do I even want to play basketball anymore? Like is this something that I want to do?,’ but I think through my parents’ support and friends, I was able to keep going and I’m at where I’m at because of them,” he shared.
He goes on to say that having a strong support system was extremely vital for him during this strenuous experience because he needed people in his corner to continue rooting for him and motivating him, especially during the harder times where he felt everything was working against him. In addition to his family, another big motivator for the athlete was his donor family.
“I feel like that’s something that’s me doing right by them and I think that me being able to continue to play basketball and being able to continue to inspire others in my community is also in a way helping not only myself, but helping the person who donated their heart to me and their family. Hopefully, one day I’m able to meet their family and let them know that your family members’ sacrifice wasn’t in vain and I’m doing the best that I can through them,” he said.
Through his support team, perseverance, hard work and a great deal of faith, he was able to get back on track and back on the courts in Sept. 2021 during his last year of high school at Ridley College, and pursue his dream of obtaining a Division 1 scholarship. This time, as the first player to ever do so with a donated heart.
“I think this experience has taught me that…there’s things in life that you want and then there’s things that you absolutely need and I think that being grateful for the things that you have is so important, like being grateful for family friends, for everything that I’ve ever experienced, like I’m truly grateful for that. But not only that, I’m just grateful for life and being here in the present right now,” he said.
To Kalambay, Heart & Sole is a message of resilience and inspiration. He hopes it will embolden others to talk about the struggles they’re going through. He believes that in today’s day and age, young men in particular are afraid to speak up about tough issues, so it’s crucial to remind them that it’s OK to ask for help.
“Hopefully through watching this film, where those who have a loved one who is going through the same thing can help support them and understand them a little bit better, because they’re able to kind of get a glimpse into the inside of their mind. And hopefully, it helps them comfort, whatever it is that they’re going through a little bit better,” he said.
In collaboration with the Canadian Blood Services organization, the film showcases and encourages people to donate blood or become an organ donor. Filmmakers aim to highlight the low response of donations in the Black and racialized community and the many Black lives that are lost in Canada as a result.
“…Being an organ donor is one of the most courageous things that anyone can do. I think especially in the Black community, there’s not enough organ donors, just a fear of not knowing what that really means. And a lot of people aren’t educated. So, I think that as well as inspiring people to be able to speak up, I think it’s very important that people can try to learn more about organ donation and see if it’s something that they’re willing to do,” Kalambay said.
Currently, Kalambay has been sidelined from the basketball season due to health-related reasons and is working on getting back into the game. Alongside this, he is also pursuing a degree at the University of Calgary. His last words of advice for those learning his story is to reach for the stars and continue grinding towards your passion.
A special screening of Heart & Sole: The Dylan Kalambay Story will be presented at the University of Toronto, Innis Theatre on Oct. 14. This will be followed by a Q&A where Kalambay will be in attendance to answer questions.
The film includes notable figures such as Toronto Raptors forward Pascal Siakam, former Raptors coach and Philadelphia 76ers Head Coach Nick Nurse, and the Boulet Family, who’s son Logan died in the Humboldt Broncos bus tragedy in April, 2018. Logan’s death sparked a national movement known as “The Logan Boulet Effect”, which inspired over 100,000 Canadians to register as organ donors.
