A doctor was told she was 'at risk of sudden death' after her heart function dropped to just 12%.
Sanjana Kochhar, an NHS doctor in Liverpool, first started experiencing chest pains when she was just 20. She also noticed she was struggling to walk upstairs without getting out of breath.
She was later diagnosed with heart failure and was fitted with an ICD to control her heart rhythm. At one point, Sanjana’s heart function dropped from 35% to 12% and she was admitted to hospital with multiple organ failure in October 2022.
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In November 2022 she was placed on the urgent transplant list , after being told she was at risk of sudden death. Sanjana told PA Real Life: "Being a doctor, I knew how risky the operation was. I was so grateful to have survived it that the recovery almost seemed easy, even though it really wasn’t.
"Now, I’m happy to be back at work and helping patients on their own journeys." She added: "Doctors warned me that if I did some sort of activity or exercise suddenly then I’d be at risk of sudden death."
Despite living with heart failure since 20, Sanjana was able to lead a relatively normal life and was able to work until 2022, when her heart function dropped and she suddenly became very unwell. She said: "I remember just coming back from a holiday in Portugal and I didn’t feel particularly unwell but a day later I started coughing and couldn’t stop. I felt like I was really struggling to breathe and I couldn’t get a full sentence strung together."
In November 2022, a heart became available that was a match for Sanjana. After just over a month of waiting, the 29-year-old was taken to theatre for the major life-saving operation. Following her surgery, Sanjana spent a week in intensive care before being moved to a ward where she recuperated for a month.
She said: “I was just so happy to have survived that, in my head, the recovery seemed easier than it was. I think it was actually really hard but I only remember the good bits. I lost all the function in my muscles and it took a month to learn to walk again and another month to walk up a flight of stairs.
"I couldn’t pick things up off the floor because of the pain in my chest, those things were really difficult, but I felt that it was manageable because I’d overcome the worst of it and I felt like I could do those things because what lay ahead was so positive."
Sanjana returned to work nine months after her transplant in a staged return.
She said: “I couldn’t go back any sooner because the medications I was on suppresses your immune system and obviously, being in a high risk environment with patients with all sorts of bugs, I needed to wait before returning. Initially I was a bit worried because I knew that there were going to be patients that would trigger certain emotions in me and I was worried about the impact that would have on myself reliving what I’ve gone through but actually, it made me realise how much I loved working and contributing to society and I’ve always enjoyed the work that I’ve done.
Sanjana has shared her story as part of the British Heart Foundation’s (BHF) Ticker Tapes podcast, where people share honest accounts of living with heart and circulatory diseases. To listen to the podcast, visit: open.spotify.com/episode/7JepMEFBg6QHvlsi2rYjhM
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