Doctor diagnosed with heart failure at 29 describes experience as “surreal”

A physician, diagnosed with heart failure during her studies, characterized the first-hand experience of such a severe medical condition, after having learned about it academically, as “surreal.” Dr. Sanjana Kochhar, referred to as Sanj, was 29 years old and in her third year of university studies when she began experiencing heart palpitations and breathlessness. She was ultimately placed on the urgent heart transplant list in 2022, subsequently receiving a donor organ four weeks later. “As a doctor, I thought I understood heart failure but experiencing it first-hand was surreal [and] something no amount of training could prepare me for,” she stated. Sanj, a resident of Liverpool, reported that her health began to decline, leading to difficulties walking up a flight of stairs. She underwent tests that eliminated various heart conditions, but her health became “very, very poorly,” she explained. “I wasn’t walking or eating,” she recounted. In October 2022, she was urgently admitted to the hospital in a critical state. During her hospitalization, she experienced multiple organ failure and was added to the urgent heart transplant list on 31 October 2022. “My heart wasn’t working properly, my lungs were full of fluid and my kidney and liver function were quickly deteriorating,” she elaborated. She noted that, remarkably, a donor was located quite rapidly, and she underwent her transplant merely four weeks thereafter. She expressed that while she was thankful for receiving the organ, the experience was accompanied by a range of emotions. “For me, one of the hardest things to get through was accepting the fact that someone was going to die in order for me to get a heart,” she stated. “I think as a doctor, that’s a really difficult thing to process because my job is to save people. In a horrible way, by wanting a new heart, I was waiting for someone to die,” she added. Sanj, currently 31 years old, was released from the hospital on Christmas Eve 2022 and commenced adapting to life with a transplanted heart. She indicated that achieving milestones such as attending the gym and engaging in hiking, yoga, and badminton would have been unattainable without the transplant. She mentioned that she became engaged on the anniversary of her transplant in November 2023 and now aims to increase awareness of heart conditions. “I think I’m in a really unique position being a doctor and a transplant recipient and I think I should use that to help other people,” she commented. Dr. Charmaine Griffiths, chief executive of the British Heart Foundation, stated that despite six decades of advancements for her organization, it was “heartbreaking” to acknowledge that “millions of people like Sanj… are hoping and waiting for treatments and cures that we just don’t have yet.” Listeners can access the best of BBC Radio Merseyside on Sounds and follow BBC Merseyside on Facebook, X, and Instagram. Story ideas can also be submitted to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk. Copyright 2024 BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC disclaims responsibility for the content of external sites. Information regarding their approach to external linking is available.